To the American people — 

THEIR PROSPERITY, HAPPINESS, 
FREEDOM AND NATIONAL SECURITY, 
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. 



Copyright, 1920, by P. S. Bond 



(£$ 




~m 




MAY 1 4 1920 



Your Boy &f The Other 

in 

Universal Training 

The Nation's School 
for Citizenship 

A Message to the Fathers and Mothers #/ America 

Being A Short Exposition of the Leading Facts and 
Arguments in Connection with Universal Training 

Why We Need It and What It Is 
What It Means to the Nation 

What It Means to Your Community 
What It Means to Your Boy 

CoL Pc S. Bond and Col. C. F. Martin 

United States Army 

With an introduction 
by 

Gen. Leonard Wood 



1920 

Press of The Military Engineer 

Washington Barracks, D. C 



CONTENTS yrt/i 



y Page 



INTRODUCTION BY GENERAL WOOD iii 

Lest We Forget iv 

Author's Preface v-vii 

Foreword viii 

PART I. UNIVERSAL TRAINING A SCHOOL OF CITIZENSHir. 

Where Are We Heading? 1 

You and Your Community 8 

The Need of Better Education 16 

Illiteracy 30 

The Dangers of Anarchy 34 

- The Waste of Human Capacity; Fitting the Individual to His Task 39 

Loss to the Nation from Careless and Dishonest Work 44 

The Influences of Environment, Association and Suggestion 49 

Character Building and Habit Formation . 56 

The Democratizing Influence of Universal Training 60 

Better Relations between Capital and Labor; Greater Production 

of Wealth 63 

Discipline and the Team Spirit 84 

Universal Training and National Health 92 

Diffusion of Benefits 110 

Universal Training for Women 110 

Your Boy and the Other One 111 

The Civilization Yet to Come 121 

PART II. WHAT UNIVERSAL TRAINING MEANS. 

Origin and History 127 

How the System Operates 132 

Benefits of the Military Phase of Training 144 

Cost of Universal Trainirg 145 

The Urgent Need of Prompt Action in Establishing a Militarv 

Policy 1 156 

Functions of the Regular Army 159 

Length of the Period of Training 167 

The Best Age for Training 176 

The Need for Federal Control 178 

Who Favor Universal Training 181 

PART III. UNIVERSAL TRAINING % AND NATIONAL DEFENSE. 

• 

The Need of Preparedness " __, 187 

Weakness of the Voluntary System. ••.» 236 

The Bogey of Militarism _'__ 244 

Labor and Universal Training 251 

The Obligation of Service 260 

Patriotism 264 

Appendix. Synopis of Legislation Providing for Universal Training 
now Under Consideration by Congress. 



MAY 14 1920 



©CU566986 



/ 



INTRODUCTION 



//<?/ 



nf 



Colonel Bond and Colonel Martin present in a very 
interesting way the question of Universal Training for 
National Service. 

They bring out the strong influences for good, for law 
and order, respect for property and the constituted authori- 
ties v 'eh comes from military training, as well as the phys- 
ical benefits and the increased respect for the rights of 
v thers, the advantages of more intimate association with 
len from various walks of life and the broadening in- 
xjuences of the training. 

I do not believe that the period of training should ex- 
ceed six months, and I am convinced that in this period we 
should combine with the military training a certain amount 
of industrial training. We want to so train our men that 
they will be better equipped for the battle of life. 

The work is worthy of thoughtful and careful considera- 
tion by all who are interested in this very important 
question. 

Leonard Wood. 
Chicago, 111., 

December, 1919. 



LEST WE FORGET! 



1779 

(Extract from the Preamble to the Constitution.) 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defense, promote the gen- 
eral welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution 
for the United States of America. 

1864 

(Extract from Lincoln's Gettysburg address.) 

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
in vain; that this nation under God shall have a new birth 
of freedom, and that government of the people, by the 
people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. 

1920 

What is our motto to-day? 



FOREWORD / 



There follows in the wake of the great war a turmoil which 
pervades the entire world. Europe is a seething caldron of 
anarchy. Never have discontent and radicalism been so ram- 
pant in the world as at present, nor governments less stable. 

Are we exempt from danger? In once peaceful America, 
strikes and outbursts of anarchy are the order of the day. 
Mob rule and class rule challenge the rule of law and order. 
The very foundations of democracy are assailed. Selfish- 
ness rules, restraint is thrown aside, license supersedes 
liberty. More self-indulgence and extravagance, less thrift 
and honest service, are the desires uppermost in the minds 
of far too many of our citizens of all classes. 

What is the cause of this dangerous unrest? It is indi- 
vidualism run mad. Men have cast aside their obligations 
and forgotten patriotism in an orgy of self-indulgence. If 
these conditions become general they lead to revolution more 
dangerous than any foreign war. "We must halt this mad 
flight before it brings us to ruin. We must right the ship 
of state ere it drifts to destruction. We must return to an 
appreciation of our duty, we must insure ourselves against 
evils so fraught with danger. We must foster, by universal 
education, a nationalistic instead of an individualistic 
spirit — the substitution of patriotism for selfishness in the 
heart of every citizen. 

This is the most vital need of America to-day. We should 
palliate the evil by drastic action. But if the symptons only 
are treated, the disease breaks forth again in another form 
or another place. We must strike at the root of the evil. 
By educating all our children from birth, and all aliens from 
their arrival, to a sense of obligation to their country and 
fellow beings we must prevent the growth of a class of 
citizens who can so menace us. 

There is no time for delay, no merit in half measures. 
We need thorough national education, and we need it NOW. 



AUTHORS' PREFACE 



As this book goes to press several bills providing for 
Universal Training of American boys are under consider- 
ation by Congress. The American Legion, civic bodies, 
public men of all political faiths, clergymen, educators, 
newspapers in all sections of the country, are supporting 
this movement for a better educational system in our land — 
a real school for Citizenship. 

There has never been any question before the American 
people which so vitally affects their welfare, or in which 
they have taken so keen an interest. This is the most im- 
portant piece of legislation undertaken by Congress since 
the foundation of the Republic, the most far reaching and 
beneficent in its influence upon our national life and future 
progress. It intimately and directly concerns every citizen 
of the country. There is a crying need for more and 
better education, for a widespread education to reach not 
the favored few alone, but every boy in Am.erica. 

The late war and the disturbances following it plainly 
indicate the need for a better Americanism, to insure both 
domestic tranquillity and security against foreign aggres- 
sion. This can be accomplished only by a better system of 
education under control of the Federal government. 

We are facing the dawn of a new era. This is of all 
times the most appropriate for taking stock of past failures 
and past successes, and for raising our standards or creat- 
ing new ones. We are better able than ever before to appre- 
ciate our deficiencies and needs for the future, and to 
establish such new institutions as cool judgment may decide 
upon as necessary to our welfare and progress 

Before the great war, lacking the stimulus it furnished, 
it would have been all but impossible to uproot old tradi- 
tions, however inimical to progress, to change outworn cus- 
toms, or undertake any wide national movement, particu- 



larly one involving great expenditures. We were simply 
drifting. The most striking examples of this were our abso- 
lute disregard of the need of preparedness for defense, and 
our reprehensible neglect of education for all the people. 
Many of our most intelligent citizens refused to listen to 
any hint of danger, while the pacifists loudly proclaimed to 
an applauding nation that war was henceforth impossible, 
and the invasion of America a madman's dream. 

We have learned better these days. We have learned 
something of our defects and limitations as well as our 
powers and capabilities. We have learned to do things on 
a big scale. And we have learned that America is not im- 
mune from the dangers that threaten the rest of the world. 

And now, while these lessons are fresh in our minds, 
before we forget all that we have learned at so great a cost, 
is the time to trim our ship, take our bearings and lay our 
course anew. We need not alone preparedness for defense 
against foreign aggression, but also against internal dis- 
order, and for better citizenship and a higher civilization. 

Education is civilization. It is the solution of all the 
vexing problems and difficulties we are facing, and which 
are due chiefly to narrowness of vision, and to the growth 
of an individualistic instead of a nationalistic spirit. 

We need better education to win success in the struggle 
for commercial supremacy which will follow the great war, 
to be worthy of the glorious future spread before us. We 
need education to make us better American citizens, more 
tolerant, more kindly, more helpful, more loyal, more 
orderly and law-abiding, and more patriotic. We need edu- 
cation to make life more worth the living for us all. 

Our boys are entitled to education that will give them a 
chance to achieve not a bare living alone, but success and 
happiness. There is ample room for more successful men. 

Universal training does not mean compulsory military 
service. It means training for better citizenship. 

Universal training will directly affect every family in the 



land with a boy amongst its members. If you have a boy, if 
your brother, sister, or friend has a boy, you have a direct 
interest in this matter. Or if you are only a citizen with the 
welfare of your country at heart, you have an interest. 

It is the purpose of this volume to explain the nature and 
modus operandi of Universal Training, to show what it 
means to the boys and to the nation, to point out its vast 
and easily realized possibilities as a school for the making 
of better and more useful citizens, and to indicate the vital 
need of such training as an insurance for our national 
security and independence. And it is hoped also to dispel 
certain fears and misconceptions that have existed in the 
past. A proper understanding of these matters cannot 
fail to enlist popular support of a project so far reaching 
and so beneficent in its influence upon our national life. 

If, as a result of the lessons we have learned in the late 
war, universal training becomes a permanent institution in 
America, it will many times repay the cost of the war. 

With the knowledge so plainly before us that each suc- 
cessive war is more expensive, more deadly, and more 
dangerous to our national existence, shall we continue to 
leave the national defence to chance? If, with the lessons of 
the late conflict fresh in our minds, we do not now establish 
a rational policy of defense there is virtually no hope that 
we will ever do so in the future when too many of us will 
have forgotten those lessons. And the next war will find 
us quite as unready as always in the past. 

Let us not delay nor attempt to evade the problems con- 
fronting us. To-day is America's opportunity to make her 
place in the world secure for all time and the opportunity 
may never come again. The iron is hot for the forging. 

Note. — The illustrations in this volume are from official photographs 
by the Signal Corps, U. S. Army; those of West Point by the White 
Studio; the frontispiece by Courtp*^ of the National Security League. 



PART I 

UNIVERSAL TRAINING A SCHOOL 
OF CITIZENSHIP 



Where Are We Heading? 

EVERY thinking citizen of the United States must 
to-day be asking himself some very pointed 
questions. The end of the war has not brought 
that for which he hoped. Instead of a more united 
people, instead of better understanding and higher 
citizenship, a spirit of cooperation and patriotism, he 
sees a whirlpool of misunderstanding, recrimination, 
bitterness and strife. Nothing is settled, nothing is 
stable. The citizen who loves his country sees many 
things to cause him grave concern. 

He sees the cost of living so high that demands are 
heard on every side for increased wages as a relief 
from the intolerable burden, and he reads that in- 
creases in wages can give only temporary relief, 
because higher wages add to the cost of production, 
which in turn forces up the cost of living. In this 
unhappy circle he sees the nation struggling, the dif- 
ferences between capital and labor apparently as far 
as ever from adjustment. 

He hears of strikes, bigger and more serious strikes 
than he has ever heard of before, strikes that affect 
[i] 



the very mainsprings of the country's welfare, that 
threaten to paralyze industry and to bring revolution, 
chaos and suffering upon our people. 

Between the clamoring laboring classes and the 
worried capitalistic class he sees a large number of 
people called by some the middle classes, clerks, office 
employees, doctors, nurses, government, state and city 
employees and officials, teachers, small business men, 
professional men of all kinds, the class that never 
strikes, suffering all the hardships of the increased cost 
of living and finding little or no relief in the way of 
increased compensation. 

He finds that there is a class of conscienceless people 
called "profiteers" who in their greed are gnawing 
at the vitals of all their fellows. He perceives that 
there is also a very large class of selfish aliens having 
no love nor respect for America, its ideals or institu- 
tions, who to accomplish their own selfish ends would 
gladly substitute Russian bolshevism for free govern- 
ment. 

The citizen sees anarchy rear its ugly head and 
threaten the very life of the free institutions our fore- 
fathers gave their lives to establish. He sees a world 
not yet safe for democracy in spite of all our own 
sacrifices in the late war — a world which is a seething 
caldron of unrest, discontent and disorder. 

On every side we hear sinister rumors. The voices 
of prominent and public spirited men are heard in 

[2] 



warning. After a war for freedom gallantly fought 
by our young men we are told that the perils of democ- 
racy are as great as they were in 1917, that the danger 
to our own free institutions is greater than ever, and 
that this danger is from within. It lies in the passions 
and misunderstandings of men in our own midst, men 
who have no idea of the spirit of cooperation, of good 
citizenship, patriotism or obligation to fellow man. 
And this is because we do not teach citizenship to the 
aliens that come amongst us, nor even to our own 
native born young Americans. 

President Hadley of Yale University recently said: 

Our fathers realized that freemen must be intelligent and 
it was for this avowed reason that they established public 
school systems, which have been constantly enlarged and 
improved. Some of the founders of the American Com- 
monwealth believed that knowledge was the one thing 
needed and that unselfishness would follow in due time 
as a matter of course. These hopes have not been realized. 
The widening of the course of study in our public schools 
has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in 
political wisdom. Two-thirds of the things that are taught 
.people in our schools and colleges hav£ little effect in mak- 
ing people better citizens. 

We have prided ourselves on the ^opportunities" 
offered in this land of ours, but we have not looked 
very closely to see just what kind of opportunities are 
really offered, and to how many of our boys and girls 
they are offered, nor in our complacency have we 
realized that there are opportunities for evil as well 

[2] 



as for good. We have perhaps hitherto supposed that 
we had an excellent school system, that we were a 
well educated people, and that well educated people 
are necessarily good people and good citizens. But we 
are now coining to realize that we are not, taking us 
as a whole, a well educated people, and that our edu- 
cational system has not been a satisfactory school for 
citizenship. 

Despite the educational facilities provided there are 
in the United States millions of adult persons who can 
neither read nor write. Despite the opportunities 
offered there are millions of people living in poverty. 
And in addition to millions of illiterates, barred effect- 
ually from so many sources of knowledge, there are 
also millions whose education, as we now see, has not 
taught them the fundamental principles of good citi- 
zenship, who are unconscious or unmindful of the 
misery of others, and deficient or totally lacking in 
a sense of duty to fellowman and to country. 

We read of unstable conditions in the world at 
large, of the clash of national desires and ambitions. 
We see nations just emerging from the most terrible 
war in history even now talking about the next great 
war. A world that proclaimed that the last war was 
so dreadful that human nature could not endure 
another such, finds that peace is not yet achieved and 
that war clouds still hang on the horizon. 

We have seen that modern war is like a huge octo- 

[4] 




[5 ] 



pus whose far-reaching tentacles may dart in unex- 
pected directions and draw the most distant peace- 
loving neutral into the vortex of combat. We know 
that there is no longer such a thing as isolation, that 
we live in an age of powerful machines and marvelous 
inventions, that war is fought by new and stupendous 
methods. The average man can scarcely conceive 
them, but he realizes that it is no longer sufficient 
to take the sporting rifle from the door and assemble 
behind buildings and hedges to repel an invader. He 
realizes that there must be national preparedness for 
defense from now henceforth, and that preparedness 
must be a matter of constant study and training, that 
it is not something that can be evoked over night, that 
it is not a state of mind. 

In the face of these grave conditions at home and 
abroad our citizen asks himself, "What is the reason 
for all these unhappy conditions?" He knows that 
our country is big and beautiful, with ample resources 
to provide comfort and happiness for all the people. 
Why, then, is there so much discontent and disorder? 
And what is the remedy ? 

The remedy is a better education for us all. It is 
the only remedy that reaches the seat of the malady. 
Man's God-given intelligence, that spark of the divine 
power that is within him, is the mighty, irresistible 
weapon with which in all ages he has fought and over- 
come every form of evil. Ignorance is the source of 

[6] 



all evil, knowledge is the power with which it is over- 
come, and education is the source of knowledge. 

Even in the midst of criticism prominent legislators 
and eminent educators from institutions in every part 
of the land, all unquestionably free from any influence 
except the interests of their country, are demanding 
universal education for the young men of America. 

Every citizen wants to know and ought to know 
what will be the effect of universal training upon our 
young manhood. "Will it plunge us into Militarism? 
What ideals is it to set up before the sons of America 
who, at the most impressionable period of their lives, 
are to be subjected to this training? Are there any 
real advantages other than preparedness for the de- 
fense of the country, to be derived from a system such 
as is proposed? 

It is the purpose of this little book to show that the 
United States need to-day more than anything else, a 
system of universal training for young men, and that 
military preparedness is merely one of the many 
benefits to be gained by the institution of such a sys- 
tem. As a school of citizenship universal training can 
do more to make this country a better land to live in 
than has ever been done by any institution for any 
country in all the history of the world. It will be the 
means of -eradicating the dangers of ignorance and 
poverty, and their attendants, preventable disease, 
disorder, anarchy and crime. 

[7] 



You and Your Community 

All the accomplishments of man which constitute 
what we call civilization — material, as well as mental, 
moral and spiritual civilization — are the results of the 
concerted action of many individuals working towards 
a common end. It was by concerted action that man 
rose from barbarism and developed the resources of 
the earth for his own benefit. When he first banded 
himself with his fellows in overcoming common foes 
and common difficulties, he had put his foot upon the 
first rung of the ladder of progress. And by concerted 
action he has climbed from one rung to the next. 

Modern civilization is thus characterized by the 
association of individuals in concerted action, and the 
growth and development of the community. 

You, as a man of to-day, live in a community. In 
early prehistoric times the family was the only unit of 
society, and depended on itself for safety and sus- 
tenance. Communities did not exist. 

The primitive family supplied all its own simple 
needs. It built its own habitation and guarded itself 
against aggression. It cultivated or hunted its own 
food, cut its own fuel, drew its own water, made its 
own clothes, cured its own ills. The family was em- 
ployed almost entirely in ministering to its own physi- 
cal needs. It had no time for anything else. Event- 
ually it was found that greater protection was afforded 
by concerted action. Several families banded them- 

[8] 




[9] 



selves together, primarily for mutual protection, thus 
forming tribes. Following this certain individuals of 
the tribe were assigned to do the hunting for all, others 
to till the soil, still others to construct habitations, etc. 
Soon it was found that certain tribes produced com- 
modities distinct from or superior to those of other 
tribes. This led to an interchange or barter of such 
commodities, and thus was ushered in the era of trade 
and transportation, the crude beginning of civilization. 
The community idea once established, the progress of 
civilization was rapid. Neighboring communities 
joined forces for mutual protection, and for economic 
and political reasons. For similar reasons large com- 
munities combined to form states or nations. 

In contrast to the primitive family which supplied 
all of its own needs, we now see the modern city- 
dwelling family which supplies not a single one of 
them, but is dependent on the community for every- 
thing that it requires, w^hich is much in these highly 
civilized times. The family does not build its own 
house, it does not construct a single item of the 
elaborate furnishings thereof. Its heat, light, water, 
food, are all supplied by others. The family does not 
even make its own clothes, it does not educate its 
children. Food, drink, clothing, shelter, protection, 
education, entertainment, transportation — all the 
necessaries and all the luxuries of life — are furnished 
by the community. 

[10] 



When we say "the community," we speak in a 
broad sense. There is no town or city, however large, 
that supplies all the needs of its own inhabitants. So 
large a community as New York City is dependent 
upon the surrounding country, indeed the whole coun- 
try, for even its daily food. If the great stream of 
trains carrying food into New York were interrupted 
for even a single day, great suffering would result. If 
it were interrupted for a week many would be starv- 
ing. Thus the entire nation, the larger community, 
contributes to the needs of your family. 

As a member of a community you have all your 
needs provided, brought to your very door or even 
delivered inside your house, leaving you free to pur- 
sue your work, and enjoy your recreation. 

You have conveniences, comforts, entertainment and 
protection for yourself and your family which you 
could not have except for the continuous and normal 
functioning of the community in which you live. 
You go about your daily life in peace and tranquillity, 
free from worry and annoyance, because night and 
day the community performs its functions smoothly 
and uninterruptedly. 

Any person who has a proper sense of apprecia- 
tion of benefits conferred cannot fail to be grateful 
for all -that he receives, which makes life easy and 
pleasant, permits him to pursue his vocation undis- 
turbed, and gives him time for better and higher 

rui 



things than simply ministering to his own physical 
wants. Or if you wish, for the sake of argument, to 
put the matter on a purely selfish ground, Are you 
not glad to have these things and is it not to your 
own interest to maintain the community which fur- 
nishes them and the conditions which make this com- 
munity possible? What would life be worth if all 
these benefits were suddenly shut off ? How irritating 
it is when a single one of them is shut off for even a 
brief period — the electric light while you have a social 
gathering at your house, or the artificial ice on a 
single hot day in summer ! 

You may say that you pay a good price for every 
commodity and service and that you pay taxes to 
support the community. But how little you pay in 
proportion to what you receive! What a difference 
between your benefits and those of primitive man. 
Whether you are a capitalist or laboring man you en- 
joy privileges and luxuries that kings did not know 
fifty years ago. 

You suffer only a fraction of the hardships and 
dangers of primitive man and you have a thousand 
times his benefits. And the community has given you 
all that you possess and enjoy. Perhaps you feel 
that you would like more than you have, but you must 
admit that you receive far more from the community 
than you contribute to it, for you enjoy all the ad- 
vantages that civilization (the community) created or 

[12 ] 



accumulated in the years before you were born. You 
brought nothing into this world, yet at once you be- 
gan to enjoy its benefits. 

And finally it should be said that the benefits of 
partnership in a good community are not solely, nor 
perhaps even chiefly, of a material nature. The great- 
est of privileges is to enjoy the companionship of in- 
telligent, congenial and kindly people. That is the 
kind of people you desire in your community. 

You may well ponder what would be your state 
were the present order to be overthrown. If disorder 
or chaos should come upon the community you would 
instantly feel the effects thereof; if ruin, you would 
be involved therein. 

For this protection, support, comfort and com- 
panionship, if for no higher reason, you owe much 
to the community. You are directly and selfishly con- 
cerned in the continuous improvement of the com- 
munity and the maintenance of peace, order and 
efficiency therein. If the community is threatened by 
enemies from without or from within, it is your duty 
and your interest, in common with all other members 
of the community, to defend it against such enemies. 
You owe your community loyalty and allegiance, serv- 
ice and protection. 

Your local community is but a part of that larger 
community, your country.. We cannot say definitely 
where the lines of the local community end. Your 

[13 ] 



obligations are not limited to your district or pre- 
cinct, nor yet to your town or county, nor even to 
the state in which you live. They are all interdepen- 
dent and all dependent on that larger community, the 
nation. To your country, under God, you owe every- 
thing that you are and have and enjoy. For you 
brought nothing into this world, your very life is the 
gift of the community. This is your country and you 
are directly concerned with everything that pertains 
to it, its government, its institutions, its safety and 
preservation, all the problems with which it is con- 
fronted, all the forces of good or evil that are work- 
ing for or against it. 

As a man of reason you cannot deny the truth of 
these arguments. Whether you put the matter on 
patriotic or on selfish grounds, in either case your 
welfare is wrapped up in that of the community. 

At this point you may justly inquire, "What bear- 
ing has universal training on me and my com- 
munity ? ' ' 

The community is no better than its individual 
members. And the individual is bettered by educa- 
tion, and by this we mean not education of his intel- 
lect and productive powers alone, but more important 
still, the education and development of his character.- 
Every efficient, loyal and law-abiding person added 
to a community raises its standard and makes it a 
better community to live in, and every vicious, idle 

[14] 



and irresponsible person lowers that standard. How- 
ever well pleased you may be with the community in 
which you live and with your country as a whole, you 
are yet aware that there are many respects in which 
both might be improved. This improvement can be 
accomplished only by education of the right kind. 
In the first place, universal training will give to the 
nation every year hundreds of thousands of young 
men who have received the best education in good 
citizenship that we can give them. That they will 
raise the moral, intellectual and physical standards 
of their respective communities and of the nation, is 
not to be doubted. If they did not there would be 
something wrong with our system of education, and 
we could better it. This is the greatest benefit that 
universal training will confer on the nation. It is a 
vast university wiiose graduates are better citizens. 
But it is not alone the improvement of our com- 
munities and of our civilization which concerns us. 
We must protect that civilization and defend our 
rights and liberties against foreign aggression. Self 
preservation is the first law of nature, and national 
defense is the first duty of the state. Every individ- 
ual who enjoys in America the blessings of civilization 
and freedom, owes to the country the duty of defend- 
ing it against all enemies from within or from with- 
out. And if we acknowledge that duty we must ac- 
knowledge the necessity of preparing ourselves and 

[15 j 



our fellow citizens to perform it. We must be not 
willing alone, but also able to defend our country. 
Universal training will make the men of the country 
both willing and able to defend it against any who 
would invade its rights. It will make them also, as 
we shall see, better members of their communities, and 
better citizens in all respects. 

The Need of Better Education. 

To maintain the virility of a race, good living con- 
ditions, good wages, good laws, morality in family and 
social life, and a host of other things are either es- 
sential or helpful. But that which is most essential, 
and which promotes all other essentials, is education. 
The aim of all education is to make the individual 
a more useful member of society, a better citizen ; and 
in accomplishing this it secures him also the greatest 
happiness and the largest expression of his powers. A 
government which insures to its people these ad- 
vantages, including an education which enables them 
to make their lives more useful and therefore more 
happy, is a stable government, because intrenched in 
the affections of its grateful citizens. It is a virile 
government, which neither aggression from without 
nor discontent from within can easily overthrow. A 
government which provides advantages for its people 
wins their esteem, which is patriotism. And the love 
and support of the people strengthens and betters the 

[16] 




[17] 



government. Education of the right kind makes 
better men and women and better citizens, and it is 
good citizens who make a virile, a happy and an en- 
during commonwealth. 

The average educational standard of the citizens 
has a far greater influence on the excellence of the 
government in a democracy than in a monarchy. 
Democratic government or majority rule is good only 
when the majority is educated and intelligent. If the 
mass of the citizens is ignorant and unthinking, 
majority rule is merely a sort of mob rule. Therefore 
education, not of the few but of all citizens, is the 
first essential condition for a successful democracy. 
The conception that democracy means the maximum 
of liberty to go our own way and do as we please 
with the minimum of governmental restraint and 
participation in governmental affairs, is fundamental- 
ly wrong. Democracy means not only government 
for the people, but government ~hy the people. The 
greater the knowledge, interest, and participation in 
the affairs of government by the citizens generally, 
the cleaner and better and more truly democratic is 
the government. And the more the citizens neglect 
the affairs of government, leaving their discharge to 
volunteers instead of truly selected representatives 
who serve from a sense of duty and not for profit, the 
more we tend towards partisan government and po- 
litical oligarchy. This is true even where the rulers 

[18] 



are elected by so-called "popular vote," as of course 
they usually are. The candidates are selected, for 
selfish reasons, by two or more opposing " rings," 
who then compete for votes. And this competition 
takes place chiefly amongst the ignorant, uneducated, 
and unthinking citizens. Such a citizen votes for the 
"party" with which he is affiliated, or for which he 
has voted before. He even sells his right of franchise. 
He seldom makes any very critical personal scrutiny 
of his party 's ' ' platform, ' ' its record, or its candidate 
for office, because he doesn't feel it his duty to take 
the time for such scrutiny. In communities where 
the mass of the honest citizens is educated to take a 
lively interest in the affairs of government and in 
their own welfare, the corrupt political "ring" disap- 
pears, and honest and efficient rulers, selected by the 
people themselves, fill the public offices of trust and 
power. 

Xo country can become the home of a truly great 
nation until the citizens generally speak the same 
language and are as a unit in their devotion to the 
country and to the flag. In China the inhabitants of 
one province speak a different language or dialect 
from those of other provinces. There are few news- 
papers, few telegraph lines and few railroads. Under 
such conditions there can be no real harmony of 
thought, no unity of action, no nationalistic spirit or 
real patriotism. That is the reason why China, the 
most populous country on earth, with an intelligent, 

[19] 



hardworking citizenry, and vast material resources, 
stands to-day the weakest and most unstable of na- 
tions, whose rights and sovereignty other nations vio- 
late at will. Similar conditions exist in America, to 
a lesser but nevertheless a dangerous extent. In 
unity there is strength. "United we stand, divided 
we fall/ 7 applies not alone to the union of the states, 
but above all to the union of the people, in thought, 
in action and in patriotic devotion. 

Education is the greatest benefit that can be con- 
ferred upon humanity. It is the cure for all of the 
evils that we suffer. Poverty, immorality, sickness^ 
crime, are all overcome by campaigns of education. 
The man who possesses even a fair education can earn 
an honest living which insures good health, removes 
the temptation to crime, and places him in an environ- 
ment conducive to morality and happiness. So well 
are these facts appreciated by our law-makers and 
public men that every state in the union has some 
form of compulsory education for the young, more or 
less efficient. Such wise men as Andrew Carnegie and 
Henry C. Frick, wishing to devote their wealth to 
the welfare of the country which had given it to them, 
expended a large part of their fortunes in the estab- 
lishment of public libraries, and the endowment of 
educational institutions, and many others have done 
likewise. So important is education considered that 
cities, generally, devote more money to schools than 
any other item of their budget, between one-quarter 

[20] 






and one-third of the entire outlay being often thus 
expended. 

You, as a citizen, are vitally interested in education 
because upon it rest government and progress. You 
are interested not alone in the education of your own 
son. You are also deeply concerned with the char- 
acter and scope of the education given to the sons of 
your neighbors and fellow citizens, not those of your 
immediate community alone, but of all the nation. 
The welfare of the country depends not upon the edu- 
cation, the moral character and the patriotism of the 
few, but upon a high standard in these matters for 
all the people. There are no more highly cultured 
people in the world than the better class of Russians, 
but that fact did not save Russia from the terrors of 
revolution and bolshevism, because the educational 
standard of the people generally is low. 

Only through truly representative government can 
the blessings of liberty be enjoyed by all men. An 
understanding of the fundamental principles of repre- 
sentative government and an appreciation of the obli- 
gations of the citizen are a vital part of education 
for all the people. For only by such understanding 
and appreciation, and the support which they insure, 
is the permanence of our free institutions guaranteed. 

A man who is ignorant is not free. He is the slave 
of superstition, bigotry, poverty and disease. He is 
at a disadvantage in every relation with his fellows, 



[21] 



an easy prey to the charlatan, the demagogue, the 
mountebank. 

Every day in our newspapers, in the writings and 
speeches of our great men, in the debates of congress, 
in books constantly pouring from the press, we find 
thoughtful advice and wise recommendations for the 
cure or abatement of the many evils from which the 
nation suffers; the "great unrest," the social evil, 
political evils, the strike evil and the unfortunate 
relations between capital and labor, profiteering, ex- 
travagant spending, the evils of anarchy, crime, pov- 
erty, preventable disease, etc., etc. Many and various 
are the remedies suggested. But whatever they be 
these reforms can become effective only when those to 
whom they are to be applied are brought to a compre- 
hension of the need for them, and an intelligent un- 
derstanding of and sympathy with the means by 
which they are to be accomplished. Intelligence is 
the only soil in which such seed will bear fruit. 
Education is the only vehicle which can carry the 
many remedies suggested. 

No reforms, no improvements, no progress are 
possible amongst ignorant people. Schiller says: 
"Against stupidity the very Gods struggle in vain." 
Ignorance is more dangerous than malice. Accord- 
ingly education is the condition precedent, the very 
foundation for every reform, every improvement, 
every plan for bettering the conditions of our indi- 
vidual and national life. Liberty holds a torch in 

[22] 



her right hand, and the name of that torch is ' ' educa- 
tion. " 

The British Labor Party recently demanded a 
program of education that would : 

Bring effectually within the reach not only of every boy 
and girl, but also of every adult citizen, all the training, 
physical, mental and moral, literary, technical and scientific, 
which he is capable of receiving. 

This is a broad platform, but not too broad. Every 
American citizen desires an equal opportunity for all 
the boys and girls and all the citizens of America. 

We must educate our children not merely to be 
cogs in the great wheel, but to live fuller lives, to 
enjoy the happiness which is their birthright. 

While some men have made a conspicuous success 
without early educational advantages, they are so 
rare as to be conspicuous. We do not expect success 
from the uneducated man, we therefore applaud when 
he does succeed, and easily condone his failure. The 
greater the progress in scientific knowledge the fewer 
the opportunities for the untrained man. Science 
permeates everything, methods are being constantly 
improved, and higher and higher training is required. 

It is true there must always be "hewers of wood 
and drawers of water," which is to say, people en- 
gaged in humble occupations, but the methods of 
hewing wood do not remain the same. In the 
simplest occupations more advanced methods are 
being constantly introduced, calling for higher edu- 

[23] 



cation and greater training and skill on the part of 
the humblest workman. Hewers of wood and drawers 
of water are becoming relatively fewer as modern 
machinery and methods enable one skilled man to do 
the work of many unskilled. 

Moreover, there is no reason why even the hewers of 
wood and drawers of water should be deprived of 
their heritage of progress and uplift, which is the 
pathway all were meant to tread. Should not a degree 
of refinement and even of culture pervade the 
humblest home? It is not true that education spoils 
a man and makes him discontented and unhappy. It 
is wrong education only that does this. Wrong educa- 
tion, wrong influences, a lack of guidance and inspira- 
tion — it is these that have spoiled the field hand and 
turned potentially honest workingmen into anarchists 
and criminals. Lack of understanding and sympathy, 
lack of the ' ' square deal, ' ' " profiteering, ' ' selfishness, 
avarice and greed in the relations between employers 
and employees, have contributed to bring about the 
state of unrest which is so prevalent in these days. 
These conditions cry aloud for better education, for a 
school of democracy and citizenship to bring us out 
of our narrow selves, to teach us helpfulness and good 
fellowship, to instill into us the sense of duty to our 
fellowman and to our country. 

What are the matters with which a system of educa- 
tion should deal, what should we teach our children? 
Herbert Spencer asked the question, "What educa- 

[24] 




[25 ] 



tion is of most worth?" And his own answer was, 
' ' That which enables a man to live most completely. ' ' 

To live most completely different men will seek dif- 
ferent walks of life and require different kinds of 
education. But there are certain fundamentals which 
all require, and these at least should be the aim of 
any national system of education. 

Reduced to their simplest terms these fundamentals 
include the following : 

1. Simple, essential elementary knowledge. In brief, 
this means a simple elementary knowledge of reading, 
writing and arithmetic (the three "R's"). There 
should be included also the rudiments of history, geog- 
raphy, art, literature, civil government, commerce and 
industry. 

2. Physical training and hygienic knowledge. This 
includes the correction of physical defects, the de- 
velopment of the body, and instruction in the care and 
maintenance of health. 

3. Training for good citizenship. This includes moral 
training and discipline, the inculcation of the habits of 
obedience, dependability, respect for proper authority, 
loyalty, patriotism, a sense of responsibility to oneself 
and to society. 

4. Vocational training, which will fit the individual 
to properly fill the place for which he is best fitted in 
the industrial activities of the country. 

Our present system of public school education under 
the control of the individual states, falls far short of 
carrying out even this minimum program. This was 
painfully apparent to the Federal authorities during 

[ 26] 



the execution of the selective service act and the 
course of the late war. Fully 25 per cent of all 
drafted men were found to be illiterate, in that they 
could not read nor write intelligently and understand- 
ingly. Far more than half of them were found to 
be without adequate vocational training for any trade 
or profession. 

In the great majority of the states nothing more 
than the first of the foregoing items is even 
attempted. A very few states make some effort at 
physical and hygienic instruction. In none is there 
any systematic general training in citizenship or vo- 
cations. Educational laws in most states are inade- 
quate and the laws, such as they are, seldom rigidly 
enforced and frequently evaded. 

Elementary education, the ability to speak, read 
and write our national language, is the very first step 
towards fitting a man to be a useful and happy citizen. 
Without these fundamentals the further progress of 
education is difficult, almost impossible. At present 
one man in every four is seriously deficient in this 
respect. 

Universal training will have its fullest and most 
beneficial effects only in connection with a proper sys- 
tem of elementary training in the public schools 
which will insure a knowledge of the simple funda- 
mentals, chief amongst which are the "three R's." 
The period for national training is short, there are 
many important things to be taught, and it should 

r 27 i 



not be necessary to spend valuable time on funda- 
mentals which should have been acquired in the public 
schools. These fundamentals can, and will, be taught 
at the training camps when necessary; but the age at 
which universal training takes place is not the best 
age for such instruction. See to it that your boy goes 
through a good public school before his time for train- 
ing. Give him a chance to derive all possible benefit 
from this school of good citizenship. 

The educational deficiencies discovered in the en- 
trants to the training camps will afford complete evi- 
dence of the faults of public school systems in all 
states and communities, and indicate the improve- 
ments necessary. As years go by a marked betterment 
in the public school system will inevitably result. 
This in turn would enable the training camps to 
make better progress in the instruction which is their 
proper function. The public school system and uni- 
versal training must supplement each other and be 
coordinated to produce the best possible results. 
Both are necessary parts of any efficient system of 
public education. 

Our educational needs cannot be met by occasional 
outcries of public opinion, nor by sporadic, short- 
lived campaigns for improvement. They can be met 
only by systematically and continuously seeking out 
those who need education, by ascertaining the needs 
and the capabilities of each individual, and by start- 
ing each on the right path in life. 

[28] 



It is not against a foreign enemy alone that we need 
national defense. There is a still greater need for 
the national defense of our homes against poverty, 
disease, and ignorance. There is need for the defense 
of the free institutions of America against the baleful 
influences of anarchy and radicalism. There is need, 
in brief, for a universal spirit of Americanism in our 
land. Universal education alone can create it. 

Poverty and crime are no more necessary and no 
less preventable than yellow fever and diphtheria. 
We have conquered yellow fever and diphtheria by in- 
telligent systematic effort. "We can conquer poverty 
and crime in the same w T ay and with the same weap- 
on, knowledge. Universal training is a practical so- 
lution for our difficulties, and a practical cure for the 
evils we suffer. 

A recent author says: "The most beautiful epito- 
me of Democracy's achievement and promise is our 
American public school commencement day. " He is 
right. It is a beautiful and inspiring sight, this first 
step of our sweet, innocent children, into life and serv- 
ice. But there is a far more beautiful epitome which 
we may write into the annals of time. It will be that 
glorious day each year when 650,000 sturdy, fully- 
trained young men, stride forth from the camps to 
join the great army of American citizenship, to make 
the world each year safer for democracy and America 
each year a happier and more prosperous country and 
a better place to live. 

[29] 



Illiteracy 

Illiteracy breeds dangers within the body politic, 
in debarring the individual from dignified and conge- 
nial employment, and preventing the expansion of 
his mind. These dangers are ever present, and are 
more threatening than any from without. Anarchy 
and crime are born of ignorance and lack of honest 
opportunity, and the best weapon with which to fight 
them is education. 

Literacy, the ability to speak, read and write, is 
a fundamental necessity in all forms of employment 
except the commonest labor, and even the common 
laborer is more useful and derives more from life if 
he is able to read and write. Employers of labor 
naturally prefer such men. 

We receive every year thousands of foreigners in- 
tending to become citizens, but many do not grasp the 
higher citizenship, nor appreciate their responsibili- 
ties as Americans. They are denizens, but not citi- 
zens in the better sense. They come in racial groups, 
they live in racial groups, they have their own lan- 
guages and newspapers, and we have too little con- 
tact with them. 

Amongst the foreign, illiterate population, crime 
and anarchy find their natural breeding places. Uni- 
versal training applied to the young men of these 
communities will put into them the yeast of Ameri- 
canism as nothing else can do. 

As a result of universal training, the great class 
of adult illiterates which has continued to exist with 

[30] 



but little diminution, will gradually but certainly 
disappear. This class at present constitutes nearly 
8 per cent of our entire population of citizens over 
ten years of age, some nine millions of souls, and is 
by no means limited to the foreign element. It is a 
drag on the race in its struggle for self improvement. 
The foregoing percentage is of people who cannot 
read nor write a line. "Were the standard considered 
as the ability to read and write intelligently and un- 
derstandingly, the number of illiterates would be three 
times as great, a quarter of our total adult population, 
more than 25 millions of people. The "War Depart- 
ment has such a standard, and during the late war 
found one quarter of all drafted men illiterate. This 
proves beyond a doubt that our present system of ed- 
ucation falls far short of achieving the results at 
which it aims — the simple essentials of elementary 
knowledge for all the people. 

Under our present system there is no sure method 
of reaching the young illiterate and compelling them 
to learn to speak and read our language. Great num- 
bers of them evade the school laws and the pressure 
of public opinion, which are not Sufficiently definite 
and persistent to accomplish great results. 

It were better that all young men entering the 
training camps should be able to read and write. But 
this is not apt to be the case for a number of years at 
least, nor until our educational laws are much better 
enforced than at present. One of the proposals now 

[31] 



under consideration provides that illiterates must 
take additional instruction prior to their regular 
training period in order to remove their disabilities 
before the regular training commences. Such a pro- 
vision of law would have a powerful influence in re- 
ducing illiteracy. 

Under military discipline, which gives complete 
control of all of the individual's time, however, far 
more rapid progress can be made in the instruction 
of illiterates than is possible under our present public 
school system. Formerly illiterates were not accepted 
for enlistment in the army. They are now taken in, 
and by intensive instruction are being taught to speak, 
read and write with fair understanding, in the short 
period of three months. We should hesitate to pro- 
claim that such marvelous results could actually be 
accomplished, were it not that it is now being done. 
The same wonderful results that are obtained in man- 
ufacture are obtained in education. It is simply a 
case of applying high speed efficiency methods, and 
there is no limit to what we may accomplish. Fur- 
ther evidence of the possibilities of such intensive in- 
struction is afforded by the remarkable results that 
have been accomplished in the instruction of the deaf, 
dumb and blind. "When we have once set ourselves 
to a difficult task with will and determination we are 
usually astonished at what we can do in a brief period. 



[ 32 ] 






m^ 



■■ ■ 



;**. >..W 



Colonel "Mike" Kelly, formerly of the Baltimore "Orioles,' 
bats up a few flies. 



a 



[33] 



The Dangers of Anarchy 

Democracy, if the best, is also the most sensitive 
form of government, a feature characteristic of all 
highly developed things. No other form of govern- 
ment is so dependent upon the character of the peo- 
ple, nor so quickly affected by conditions, whether 
for good or for evil. 

Anarchy means no government, it means license in 
place of liberty; chaos, crime and violence, instead 
of peace and tranquillity. 

"We are so used to law and order in our communi- 
ties that we have not hitherto, perhaps, fully real- 
ized how sensitive is our civilization, nor how readily 
it might be utterly overthrown by anarchy and radi- 
calism. We have been so used to perceiving the 
orderly course of government, law, commerce and 
industry that we lose sight of the current of human 
passions which flows beneath, held down only by 
law and custom. In our time we have seen an un- 
toward event change the apparently civilized Russian 
nation into savages. We have seen red disaster over- 
turn the pillars of order and society, and plunge the 
nation into anarchy, starvation, robbery and murder. 
We turn shudderingly aside and try to assure our- 
selves that no such disaster could possibly befall 
America. But that the same sinister forces are in 
play beneath the surface of our own social fabric is 
plainly indicated by the present restlessness of the 

[34] 



laboring classes, and still more plainly by such dis- 
orders as those attendant upon the recent strike of 
the police force in Boston, one of our oldest and most 
sedate communities. We have seen other fitful out- 
breaks of anarchy in many parts of the country, such 
as the I. W. W. demonstrations, the "red" parade 
in Cleveland on May Day, 1919, dynamite bombs sent 
to prominent citizens through the mails, the murder 
of soldiers on parade at Centralia, Wash., etc. If 
the present situation is much complicated by great 
labor strikes, throwing thousands of men out of em- 
ployment, rendering them desperate and an easy 
prey to anarchist agitators, it may easily blaze into 
actual revolution. The Boston police strike has shown 
that there is a large element of supposedly law- 
abiding citizens, who are yet so poorly disciplined 
and so lacking in patriotism, as to defy the com- 
munity, and throw organized society into anarchy 
and riot to satisfy their own selfish desires. Boston 
is not unique in this respect. The same elements of 
disorder and anarchy are present in every large 
American city to an at least equal degree. 

The recent great strike in the steel industry was 
not merely a strike, but an incipient revolution. It 
was not merely a protest by labor against industrial 
conditions but an outburst of anarchy or bolshevism, 
engineered by paid agitators, seeking to disturb, for 
their own selfish purposes, the tranquillity of a peace- 
ful industrial region. Had this strike been a success 

[35] 



it would have spread like wildfire, it would have 
stopped the wheels of industry and plunged the coun- 
try into disorder and bloodshed. Investigation 
proved that anarchist agitators started the strike by 
deceiving and misleading the illiterate, ignorant 
foreign labor element of the industry. The strike 
failed to bring on a revolution because the intelligent 
American worker refused to be misled by selfish agi 
tators, and was too patriotic to lend his support to a 
movement which would plunge the country into dis- 
order, bring suffering on innocent citizens, and 
threaten our free institutions. Only amongst the 
illiterate and ignorant, and those who from lack of 
education do not appreciate their duties as citizens, 
could such a movement be fomented. The failure of 
this strike was one of the greatest victories of Ameri- 
can labor — a victory of good citizenship, patriotism, 
law and order over bolshevism and anarchy. It will 
do more than many apparently successful strikes to 
bring about a better relation between capital and 
labor. 

So long as we permit alien immigrants, totally lack- 
ing an understanding of and sympathy with our in- 
stitutions, customs, traditions and ideals, to settle 
at will in this country without requiring them to 
learn our language, acquire at least the rudiments of 
education, and assume the full obligations of citizen- 
ship — just so long as we permit this we will per- 
petuate the dangers of anarchy in free America. 

[36 j 



These aliens should be kept under strict surveillance, 
and the incorrigibles among them, the really anarch- 
istic element, should be deported, whether or not 
they have nominally assumed the status of citizens. 
But the number of such is comparatively small. In 
the great majority of cases helpful sympathy and 
education, systematically and thoroughly applied, 
would make of these people really useful and patriotic 
citizens. All should be required to learn our lan- 
guage and assisted in learning it, and should be edu- 
cated in the fundamentals of American citizenship. 
All should be required to become citizens within a 
stated time, on pain of deportation. The segregation 
of immigrants should be discouraged, even prevented 
where necessary, and foreign language newspapers 
in the United States should be suppressed as rapidly 
as practicable. The younger element should be sub- 
jected to compulsory education, including attendance 
at public schools and universal training. In brief 
this great mass of foreigners should be thoroughly 
and systematically Americanized, something which 
has never before been done. 

There are two general methods of preventing dis- 
ease, including anarchy, which is a form thereof. 
One is to eradicate the infection at its source. In the 
case of anarchy this is accomplished by watchfulness 
on the part of the authorities looking to the exclusion 
or deportation of the undesirable, dangerous element. 
The other method is to inoculate our citizens against 

[37] 



the disease, to render them immune from infection. 
This is accomplished by universal education in good 
citizenship. Both measures are necessary to produce 
satisfactory results. 

Anarchy is born of ignorance, and the weapon with 
which to fight it is education. The ranks of anarchy 
are recruited from the dregs of industrial life, the 
failures who have been forced into idleness and often 
subsequently into crime, because they have never 
learned to do honest work efficiently and conscien- 
tiously. Many of these men would have been useful 
members of society had they been properly educated 
and placed in a congenial environment. 

The best security of society against such outbreaks 
is not pistols and clubs, nor tanks and machine guns, 
but a better disciplinary training of our whole people 
which renders them immune from anarchistic infec- 
tion. The life of the soldier is consecrated to the de- 
fense of the state and its free institutions. He is the 
implacable foe of anarchy in any form. A system of 
training that adds each year some 650,000 disciplined 
young men to the body politic, is our best insurance 
against the* forces of anarchy. 

The American Legion, or association of veterans of 
the World War, is already one of the most powerful 
influences in America for law and order, and against 
anarchy and bolshevism. Universal training which 
the American Legion endorses, will create a greater 



[38] 



legion, including every man in America, and dedi- 
cated also to law, order, and good citizenship. 

Universal education which enlightens the mind, 
broadens the view, and impresses upon every man of 
the nation the responsibilities of citizenship, strikes at 
the very root of the evil of anarchy, in inoculating the 
citizen against its influences. 

The Waste of Human Capacity. Fitting the 
Individual to His Task 

It is an undeniable fact that most men fall far 
below their possibilities. Not one in a thousand ac- 
complishes anything like that of which he is capable. 
There are many reasons for this, amongst which are 
lack of interest or ambition, or a feeble incentive, un- 
congenial or unsuitable employment, inadequate prep- 
aration or training, poor health, and an imperfectly 
developed sense of duty or lack of conscience in one's 
work. Education can and will remedy all these 
deficiencies to a tremendous extent. 

Many workers are mere time-servers, without am- 
bition for themselves or a sense of obligation to their 
employers or their community. Others who are both 
ambitious and loyal fall far below the full measure 
of which they are capable because they are improperly 
trained for or unsuitecl to their tasks. By our present 
crude methods less than half the energy in a ton of 
coal is actually converted into useful heat, light or 
power. And it is a conservative estimate to say that 

[39] 



by our crude methods of education much less than half 
our human powers and capabilities find their full ex- 
pression and usefulness. Many of us have seen a 
gang of laborers double their former output under 
the direction of a wise and energetic foreman. We 
have seen baseball teams of * t scrubs ' ' and ' ' cast-offs ' ? 
win pennants and championships under the direction 
of managers who knew how to call forth the best there 
was in their men. The earnings of corporations have 
been doubled or quadrupled with the same plant and 
the same employees by placing a more competent 
management in charge of production. Most of our 
tremendous human powers are uselessly expended, or 
lie dormant awaiting the touch of the magician who 
can call them into action. 

Emerson said that what he most needed was some- 
body to make him do what he was capable of doing. 
Most of us need a suggestion from outside to awaken 
our sleeping forces or uncover our hidden talents. 

Right education, right suggestion, contact with 
alert minds, will awaken these dormant faculties and 
galvanize us into splendid action. Think of the vast 
talents and tremendous powers that lie within the 
hundreds of thousands of young men who each year 
cross the threshold of manhood. Think what it will 
mean to the nation when all these powers and talents 
are discovered, awakened, stimulated and directed in 
a great national school of universal training. The 
prospect is too vast and magnificent for words. 

[40] 



• 



To-day hundreds of thousands, yes, millions of our 
voung men find themselves in an environment that 
not only offers no appeal to their talents and capa- 
bilities, but actually smothers the ambitions that stir 
within them. Their youth is wearing out in soul- 
cramping drudgery. They are like caged animals 
with never a view of forest, stream or sky, the world 
of sunshine and opportunity that lies without. 

Is it thus we can create a better Americanism'? Is 
it thus we can make men love the land of their 
birth or adoption? Is it thus we can prevent the 
poison of discontent and anarchy from entering their 
souls? It is not physical need alone, but also stifled 
expression that is at the root of our social unrest. 

Work is necessary to life and to happiness. But 
it should be congenial. Congenial work is a sort of 
comradeship. A congenial occupation, equally with 
good health, is a prime requisite to happiness and use- 
fulness. He who has it is a free man ; he who has it 
not is a slave. Fulness of expression, fulness of life, 
is found only in the right environment. 

Industry has awakened to the need of putting the 
man in the right place, but possesses no adequate ma- 
chinery by which this may be accomplished. 

During the great war the government applied on a 
vast scale a system of classification of the drafted 
men. In many cases the individual had already 
started on the wrong path. Universal training will 
start the young man right, will prevent square pegs 

[41] 



getting into round holes, and will prevent much of 
the inefficiency and failure, the unhappiness and 
misery which are now inevitable amongst the count- 
less thousands of "misfits" who have never had a 
chance to find out what they can do. 

The mobilization for the late w r ar showed how rich 
is our nation in potential capacity for usefulness. 
Hundreds of thousands of intelligent men were dis- 
covered, and their instructors marveled at their apti- 
tude and eagerness to learn. They were intensely 
desirous of fitting themselves for some congenial and 
useful trade, but had never previously enjoyed the 
opportunity. The need for trained men is so great 
that the untrained man usually finds no opening ex- 
cept unskilled labor at which too often, for lack of op- 
portunity or stimulus to his ambition, he spends the 
best years of his life. Millions of men are in the ranks 
of common labor who would be skilled artisans if 
properly trained. Whether a man receives training 
in the trade for which he is best fitted is, under our 
present haphazard system, usually a matter of blind 
chance. We have no general system for fitting the 
individual to a congenial task. The capable machinist 
remains a farm-hand, the embryo engineer becomes a 
preacher, a good surgeon is made into a bad lawyer. 

Vocational instruction in connection with universal 
training is no untried experiment. The Vocational 
Training Section of the Students' Army Training 
Corps was organized during the war to meet the de- 

[42 ] 



mand for trained artisans for the American Ex- 
peditionary Forces. It scored a brilliant success. 
Although in operation only three months, half of 
which time was after the armistice, and greatly 
hampered by the epidemic of "flu," it trained no 
less than 120,000 artisans of all classes, 90,000 of 
whom were sent to the army, where they rendered -ex- 
cellent service. The men were selected and assigned 
to receive training in different vocations as far as 
possible in accordance with their own desires, con- 
sidering also their aptitudes and previous training. 
At the close of the war plans were perfected whereby 
500,000 artisans would have been thus trained by the 
following July. This splendid experiment proves 
beyond question that even better results can be ac- 
complished under universal training. 

At each camp an employment bureau would be 
operated in connection therewith. The young men 
would be rated in each vocation according to their 
proficiency as determined by their instructors, which 
would provide a powerful incentive for effort on the 
part of the students. Here prospective employers 
could find men instructed in any desired vocation, 
rated according to proficiency as shown during their 
course of training. This would be of vast help to in- 
dustry in replacing the present unsatisfactory methods 
of employing young men, and would also benefit the 
students by placing many of them in desirable posi- 
tions of congenial employment immediately upon their 

[43] 



release from the camps. The experiences of employ- 
ers with these men would enable them to make intelli- 
gent recommendations as to changes and improve- 
ments in the methods of general and vocational in- 
struction at the camps. Experts in manufacture, 
agriculture, and other industries would be brought to 
the camps to inspect the methods in vogue and to 
indicate where they might be bettered. All this would 
result in a progressive and uniform improvement in 
the methods of training, which would benefit all con- 
cerned. 

An educational system should aim to develop the 
latent capacities of the individual, and not to force 
him into a rut where he does not fit. Too many of our 
schools, with their rigid curriculums and lack of facili- 
ties for even the suggestion of vocational training, 
do not accomplish this aim. Universal training by 
starting the boy in the vocation towards which he 
leans, would eventually fit the great majority of our 
men into the places nature designed them to occupy. 

Such a system of training, in developing the latent 
capacities of youth on an enormous scale, would effect 
a complete transformation in our national life. Its pos- 
sibilities are boundless, and transcend the imagination. 

Loss to the Nation from Careless and Dishonest 
Work 

It is not the individual alone, but the entire nation 
that suffers from the waste of human capacity due to 

[44] 




[45] 



lack of conscientiousness and misdirected effort re- 
sulting from need of proper education, training and 
opportunity. 

There are many business men and industrial work- 
ers who lack conscience in their work, who deliber- 
ately shirk, or slur, or skimp or cheat. Some of these 
are wilfully dishonest. It is such that put inferior 
material into manufactured articles, sell paper shoes 
to the government, or tainted food to the people, who 
steal or cheat in a thousand petty, sordid ways. These 
people have no proper conception of their duty to the 
community, no knowledge of the great truth that 
"honesty is the best policy. " So sordid and dis- 
honest have many men become through lack of right 
influences that they actually look upon trickery and 
deceit in business as perfectly legitimate. And far 
from feeling any remorse, or thinking of the unhappi- 
ness and suffering caused others, they actually con- 
gratulate themselves on their own "cleverness." In 
an investigation some years ago of some of our retail 
markets it was found that certain merchants paid 
their employees according to the amount of cheating 
they could do. Food was weighed in the presence of 
the customer, and was then sent back to have its 
weight "verified." The salesman was then credited 
with the deficiency of the actual weight under that 
which he had induced the customer to accept as cor- 
rect. Think of the state of our country were such a 
standard of business morality to become general. Yet 

[46] 



undoubtedly it is the moral standard of far too many 
of our citizens. 

But there is a much larger class of workers who, 
while not actively dishonest, are yet careless, indif- 
ferent, slipshod and inaccurate. They have never 
learned to do their work conscientiously and well. 
Our manufactured goods suffer in foreign markets 
because our workmen are not more painstaking and 
conscientious, and our citizens at home suffer in pay- 
ing high prices for inferior commodities and service. 

Descending farther in the scale we come to the 
great class of "drifters," or "ne'er-do-wells," the 
dregs of the incompetent and shiftless working class. 
Their carelessness and inefficiency or pure laziness 
have made it impossible for them to succeed in honest 
work, and they drift first into idleness and often sub- 
sequently into crime. This class produces nothing 
useful, since figs do not grow on thistles, and its 
support is a total loss to the community. Not only 
that but this class is an actual menace to the peace and 
order of the country, and a source of great expense, 
for from its ranks anarchy and crime obtain their 
recruits. 

And finally in natural sequence we come to the ac- 
tively criminal class, who not only produce nothing 
useful, but prey upon society, and cause great suffer- .. 
ing and unhappiness to honest citizens, and a vast 
outlay by local governments for police force, courts, 
jails, penitentiaries, etc. In most cases criminal 

[47] 



careers are directly traceable to a lack of the will, or 
lack of opportunity, to do honest, useful and con- 
genial work. Most criminals maintain that they are 
the victims of society rather than of their own short- 
comings and vices. And to a very great extent they 
are right in this attitude. When society gives to 
every man an education which will form his character 
in the right mold, and a training which will enable 
him to obtain congenial employment and earn an 
honest living, there will be a mighty decrease in 
crime. 

It is said that great men create their own oppor- 
tunities, and this is probably true in some cases. 
But we are pleading the cause of the average man. 
The average man is equal to his opportunity when it 
comes. It should come to him as a matter of course, 
even as a matter of law, and not as at present usually 
as a matter of chance. It is said that this is a land 
of opportunity, that there is a chance for every man 
which he has only to reach out and seize. But most 
men are groping in the dark, and if they find their 
opportunity it is only by blind chance. It is not their 
fault if they are in the dark, they have never been 
led into the light or told how to reach it. When uni- 
versal training has opened their eyes and shed light 
upon the world of opportunity many men will reach 
vigorously forth and seize the opportunities God in- 
tended them to have. 

The nation suffers incalculable loss because of the 

[48] 



existence of the classes which we have mentioned, and 
their number is far greater than ordinarily supposed, 
they are of course in the majority. Undoubtedly we 
can effect a tremendous diminution in their number 
by a searching education to teach the principles of the 
"square deal, " inflexible honesty in all business rela- 
tions, a sense of obligation to one's fellows, conscience 
in one's work, however humble it may be. Only the 
man who feels his obligations and does his work con- 
scientiously receives advancement and attains success. 
Thoroughness is the mark of every successful man. 
Genius takes pains. The only enduring happiness is 
that which comes from a sense of loyal service ren- 
dered or work honestly and conscientiously done. 

The Influences of Environment, Association and 
Suggestion 

We learn more from observation, example, environ- 
ment and association than from precept or teaching. 
Those who spend their lives, especially their early, 
formative years, in an unfavorable and unenlighten- 
ing environment, never have a chance to learn, to 
see the light. They not only never learn the finer 
things of life, they do not even know that such exist. 
Knowledge they mistake for conceit, cleanliness and 
neatness of dress and person for foppishness or 
effeminacy, morality for prudishness, delicacy or 
sentiment for weakness or cowardice. 

We unconsciously absorb knowledge and acquire 

[49] 



wisdom from a favorable environment, even without 
any special training, just as a child learns to talk 
without any effort on the part of its parents to teach 
it. 

The average American possesses the instincts of a 
gentleman. But he will not actually be a gentleman 
unless brought up in a refined environment where 
ungentlemanly conduct is not tolerated. A foundling 
from an asylum, if brought up in a cultured family, 
will usually become a gentleman and a credit to the 
family. And the child of refined parentage, if reared 
amongst thieves, is very apt to be a thief. Whatever 
our capabilities or instincts may be they usually re- 
main dormant and hence useless, unless w r e are placed 
in an environment favorable to their development 
and expansion. Americans are naturally patriotic. 
But they will not be true patriots unless reared in a 
patriotic atmosphere. Weeds spring up in the most 
fertile of soils which is uncultivated. In fact, the 
more fertile the soil the larger the crop of weeds. 
The white man is said to have, of all races, the great- 
est capacity either for good or for evil. He is the 
most sensitive and responsive to the influences of 
association, environment and suggestion. He can rise 
highest or sink lowest according to his surroundings. 
It is the spirited thoroughbred that becomes vicious 
if wrongly used, the under-bred, cold-blooded animal 
seldom does. High spirited children give their 
parents most concern, because while possessing the 

[50] 



greatest capacity for good, such children possess also 
the greatest capacity for mischief if their talents and 
energies are not properly directed. 

"We can give all our children the chance to profit 
by a favorable environment. At this great school 
millions of boys will be transplanted at their most 
impressionable age from an unfavorable environment 
in which they might otherwise have spent their lives. 
Many a boy will be rescued from a cold and depress- 
ing atmosphere at a time when his manhood may be 
made a beautiful or an ugly thing. Think of the 
weakness, the one-sidedness, the narrowness, the 
atrophy and perversion that mark the brains and the 
characters of thousands upon thousands of men who 
have been reared in an environment that has stunted 
their growth and cramped their development! 

It is said that rooms retain the character of their 
former occupants so that one feels cheered or de- 
pressed upon entering them. The atmosphere of in- 
tellectuality that pervades a time-honored institu- 
tion of learning actually makes itself felt. What 
cannot be made the inspiration of the atmosphere 
of a great national university of democracy, a school 
for character formation, community spirit and 
patriotism? 

Edward Everett Hale says, "The best part of a 
college course is the fellows you meet there." At 
the camp the boy will meet and associate with boys 
from his own and other walks of life. He will learn 

[51] 



their points of view, their ideals and ambitions. By 
this association his own wits will be sharpened, his 
outlook on life broadened, his character formed. He 
will conceive new ideals and new ambitions. "We 
learn something from contact with any person, and 
we profit by association with any person of good 
character. Here our boys will come in contact with 
and learn the best thoughts of liberally educated and 
broad-minded men and women. They will have a 
chance to see forms of human endeavor that they 
have never seen before. Their interest, imagination 
and ambition will be stimulated by this association 
and environment. They will return from their train- 
ing freed in great measure from the shackles of their 
former surroundings, with a wider knowledge of the 
opportunities open to them, with more character, 
self-reliance and ambition. They are thus better 
equipped to select their life work and to succeed 
therein. 

Think of the power of the influence of right sug- 
gestion that can be built up by all the noble men and 
women whose services will be pledged to this great 
school of citizenship ! Think of the power for making 
of a great and glorious nation, which will set an 
example to a pain-racked world in directing the en- 
ergies and shaping the characters of the great class 
of over half a million young Americans whose culmi- 
nating powers, like a mighty tidal wave, beat year 
after year upon the gates of the universe ! 

[52] 



The power of suggestion is to-day well understood 
and appreciated. It is used practically in the medi- 
cal profession, in business, in all forms of advertising, 
and by understanding parents in the upbringing of 
their children. Often a speech, a lecture, a book, or 
even a word spoken at the right moment, has changed 
the current of a life. In our national school the most 
powerful and beneficent suggestions would at every 
turn meet the eye and the ear of the young man, and 
at the age when his most enduring impressions are 
received. The best educators, the most accomplished 
musicians, the most talented entertainers, the most 
eloquent and patriotic lecturers and public speakers 
can and will be employed to cultivate the minds and 
characters of the students, to point the way of life, 
and to stimulate them to the finest ideals of conduct 
and effort. Add to this all the suggestive power of 
fine paintings, good books, beautiful scenery; the 
educational and stimulative power of motion pic- 
tures at their best, the powerful suggestion of in- 
dustry, and professions as conveyed by the proper 
machinery and equipment in the shops and labora- 
tories furnished and operated by the government. 
These beneficent influences would all play their tre- 
mendous part in revealing to the impressionable 
young students their hidden capacities, their unreal- 
ized powers and sleeping ambitions. 

The wonderful benefits that would accrue to the 
young men and to the nation from the mighty reser- 

[53] 



voirs of talent and energy that would thus become 
dynamic, are beyond calculation. 

In order to have a just appreciation of the benefits 
of this scheme of national training, it is necessary 
that we sense the full meaning of the word "uni- 
versal," that we comprehend the vast size and the 
mighty scope of the system, with the whole power of 
earth's mightiest nation behind it. It is not one 
boy that we will train, not many boys, not millions 
of them, but ALL. 

How often have you seen a fine, clean, manly 
youngster and said to yourself, "What a nation these 
United States would be if all our boys were like 
that ! " It is in your power, fellow citizens, to act- 
ually realize that unspoken wish. All our boys, that 
is nearly all of them, will be like that if we give them 
the opportunity. Millions of them dumbly cry for 
the chance. They are all good boys, of good blood, 
with their hearts in the right place. They all have 
the birthright of opportunity. Let us make birth- 
right something more than a popular saying. They 
will all be boys who will make our hearts swell with 
joy and pride once we have come to appreciate our 
heretofore neglected duty to train all of them right, 
and give all the opportunity which is truly their 
birthright as American citizens. Can you conceive 
what it will mean, fellow citizens, when all our boys 
are put through a school which will make them strong, 
alert, intelligent, ambitious, clean, efficient and loyal, 

[54] 




[55] 



honorable and patriotic? Does it stir your pulses to 
think of a nation of such boys? That is what uni- 
versal training aims to accomplish. That is what 
it can, must and will do. 

We Americans believe in "big business." It is 
our genius. Big machines, big corporations, big 
projects, big output, are what have made us the 
world's biggest nation. But why stop there? "Why 
not "big business" in that which is far more im- 
portant than our industries, our farms, our mines, 
our railroads? Why "big business" in the making 
of steel and little, picayune business in the making 
of MEN? Why not the biggest business for the most 
important business — the making of good American 
citizens, of clean, strong, true, loyal men? 

Character Building and Habit Formation 

As a man thinketh in his heart so he is. Our 
energies are awakened and directed by our desires, 
our characters are shaped by our thoughts. A man's 
nature or character is simply his manner of thought 
and action, what he thinks and does. Therefore he 
must acquire the habit of right thinking to rightly 
mold his character. It is well known that our bodies 
can be made sick or their physical tone built up by 
the power of thought. Some teachers even assert 
that not only can we remodel our characters by tak- 
ing thought, but that we can renew, rebuild, re- 

[56] 






fashion our bodies. Certainly the power of thought 
in character formation is beyond question. 

The possibilities of brain development and habit 
formation are not as yet fully appreciated. Modern 
psychologists tell us that changes can be made in the 
brain by the process of deliberate habit formation. 
Man is so organized that if he does a thing once, or 
refrains from doing it, his nervous system will tend 
to do the same thing or make the same refusal in a 
similar situation. If he does the thing again and 
repeatedly he establishes a habit, which is unconscious 
or second nature. As Professor James says a man 
becomes a walking bundle of habits, and the hell in 
the hereafter of which theology tells us, is no worse 
than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by 
habitually forming our characters in the wrong way. 

In a period of several months at this great and 
wisely planned university a magnificent opportunity 
will be afforded for the inculcation in the youth of 
the land of the habit of right thinking and action, 
which . means right character formation. Environ- 
ment is the most powerful single influence in the 
formation of habit and character. 

Mental and moral qualities, like muscles, grow 
strong from exercise, and atrophy from disuse. We 
want symmetrical brain and character development. 
We must furnish food for thought to personalities 
that are growing one-sided or that are being sup- 



[57] 



pressed or stunted by wrong environment before they 
have had a chance to grow into expression. 

A great thinker once remarked that if only honor 
remained life was still worth the living. We need a 
higher sense of honor in all human relations. The 
success won at the sacrifice of honor is not worth the 
winning, for in it we lose the respect of our fellows 
without which success is hollow and useless. "What 
shall it profit a man to gain the whole earth if he 
lose his own soul?" Here, as at no other period in 
the young man's life will the opportunity be afforded 
to instill the principles of uncompromising honor in 
all one's dealings. At our great national Academies 
at West Point and Annapolis "honor training" is 
regarded as by far the most important part of the. 
curriculum. They are schools for character building. 

The way to make a man truthful is to hold his 
word sacred. The way to make him honorable is to 
show faith in his honor. These simple rules are the 
basis of West Point's honor system of discipline. 
The spoken word of a cadet is the most sacred thing 
at the Academy, and requires no evidence for its 
support. The honor of the institution is thus in the 
hands of the cadets themselves, and very jealously 
do they guard it. Here a comrade's word and a 
comrade's honor may be depended upon absolutely. 
Accordingly the best part of the discipline is that 
to which the cadets subject themselves, and which 
is not covered by the written regulations of the 

[58] 



Academy. It is the intangible something known as 
the "spirit of West Point," than which there is noth- 
ing more real and true. This spirit has pervaded the 
air of the Academy since its foundation, and is ex- 
pressed in the three simple words which form the 
motto of West Point, "Duty, Honor, Country." It 
is the spirit of honor and truthfulness, of courage, 
doggedness and determination, of pride in the clean 
and honorable records of those who have gone before, 
of determination to maintain and add to those 
records, not to fall by the wayside a victim to the 
allurements of wealth and pleasure, but to remain 
until death a worthy son of the Spartan Alma Mater. 
This is the spirit which is West Point. 

Both Academies take a just pride in the fact that 
in over a century of faithful public service, cases of 
moral obliquity amongst their graduates are so rare 
as to be practically negligible. They have been mar- 
velously successful in the building of character and 
the inculcation of an uncompromising standard of 
honor and truth. What has been accomplished at 
West Point can be accomplished b^ the same methods 
at our University of Citizenship, for the material 
with which we will deal, the youth of America, is the 
same. The spirit of honor and truth will pervade 
the air of the cantonments so that the cadet entering 
will be unconsciously imbued with it. 

No such school of character as this has ever been 



[59] 



conceived by any other nation. We will set an ex- 
ample to the world, 

The Democratizing Influence of Universal 
Training 

"Winning the war did not end the struggle for 
democracy. An education which will remove the 
source of anarchy, ignorance and wrong influences, 
and draw us closer together in a better understand- 
ing of each other, is still to be achieved. 

Universal training will go far towards leveling 
caste or class distinction. We naturally feel a sym- 
pathy with and respect for the man who has enjoyed 
the same educational advantages, and has been reared 
in the same environment as ourselves. We can work 
more congenially and more efficiently with such a 
man. We understand his motives, we know his 
habits, we can judge what he will do in certain cir- 
cumstances, as this is generally the same as we would 
do ourselves. We trust such a man and give to him 
a confidence which we withhold from those reared in 
a different environment, whose motives, methods and 
ideals, we neither fully understand nor fully trust. 

If people spend too much of their time in a small 
circle they tend to become clannish and narrow. They 
get into ruts and are unable to see the point of view 
of other people who live in circles with which they 
do not come into contact. In many cases also people 
become so accustomed to doing things in a set way 

[60] 



and thinking in a stereotyped fashion, that they 
become mentally and morally ^muscle-bound" or 
even paralyzed. For such people progress is out of 
question. 

It is therefore a good thing for boys of all classes 
and from all walks of life to rub elbows, to live 
together, to exchange views, to form friendships. 
There is nothing more stimulating to breadth of view, 
to public spirit, to helpfulness to our fellows and hap- 
piness for ourselves. Thus will every young Ameri- 
can acquire a many sided view of his fellow man, his 
character, ideals, way of living and outlook on life. 

Universal training creates a universal camaraderie. 
The young man brought up in wealth and luxury will 
find at the training camp that some of the most sterl- 
ing characters he has ever encountered have come 
from the ranks of labor. This will instill into him a 
hitherto perhaps unknown respect for those whom he 
may previously have regarded as belonging to a lower 
class of society than himself. Thereafter he will not 
entertain a contempt for one of lowly degree, but will 
look first to see whether he may not possess those 
sterling qualities of character and intellect which he 
has learned by experience are not limited to the so- 
called "upper classes." And the son of the laborer 
will learn that the son of the millionaire is by no 
means always a useless snob, but more often than 
not a modest, democratic chap from contact with 
whom he will derive both pleasure and profit. From 

[61] 



this association of the youth of all classes will spring 
millions of close personal friendships between those 
from different walks of life, bonds of sympathy to 
make the social fabric stronger and more enduring. 
In these camps every youth will stand on his own 
merits, and be admired and respected for his own 
qualities of heart and mind, and not judged by his 
antecedents alone. 

All wear the common uniform of their country's 
service, sleep in the same tents or barracks, eat the 
same food, receive the same training, engage in the 
same pursuits and recreations. All erect, square 
shouldered, alert and attentive, you cannot distinguish 
the poor boy from the rich. 

Snobbery, class distinction, all the narrow preju- 
dices of a false social system, will be dissipated in the 
clean, pure, democratic atmosphere of the training 
camp. 

The meeting for a common and noble purpose of 
young men from all parts of the country and from 
all walks of life will eradicate all the prejudices of 
locality, religion and birth, and will develop a new 
sense of democracy. We will realize for the first time 
in our history the Christian ideal of a true brother- 
hood of man, that great principle on which the Ameri- 
can Republic was founded. 

Universal national training is the "melting pot" 
that will fuse us into one great, homogeneous nation, 
an all- American team. 

[62] 



Better Relations between Capital and Labor. 
Greater Production of Wealth 

One of the greatest handicaps to our industrial 
progress and one of the chief manifestations of social 
unrest, is the friction constantly arising between cap- 
ital and labor. So much do we hear of their disputes 
that the average man has come to regard capital and 
labor as two great antagonistic forces struggling for 
the domination of industry. Many thinking men 
have warned us that these disputes contain the seeds 
of a violent revolution which threatens the social 
structure. There can be no question that this is the 
greatest danger which confronts us to-day. If we 
are to have national tranquillity and hold our own 
with other industrial nations in the competitive 
struggle which will follow the great war, these diffi- 
culties must be adjusted by means other than strikes 
and violence which will never accomplish permanent 
results, except bad ones. 

Such difficulties and disputes are due in large 
measure to selfishness and greed on the part of both 
parties. And selfishness, while unfortunately though 
perhaps necessarily a natural human instinct, is great- 
ly aggravated so far as its effects are concerned, by 
narrowness of vision, by an individualistic instead of a 
nationalistic point of view. The individual is often, 
perhaps usually, too much concerned with his own 
immediate selfish interests to give sufficient considera- 

[63] 



tion to the effect of his conduct upon the community 
and the nation, or to the manner in which it inevit- 
ably reacts upon himself. And each party to the dis- 
pute is too much concerned with his own interests 
and too little with those of the other. 

But aside from the influences of selfishness, and 
perhaps in still greater measure, the differences of 
capital and labor are due to a lack of mutual under- 
standing and tolerance and narrow - mindedness. 
The capitalist who has never been in the ranks of 
labor, or has forgotten the time when he was, does 
not always see the laboring man's point of view, nor 
sympathize with his natural desires. And the same 
is true of the laboring man as regards the capitalist. 

James H. Foster, a Cleveland manufacturer, who 
has studied the human side of industry, says : 

What is back of this industrial unrest? A shortage of 
wages? Not fundamentally, I believe. Rather it is a 
shortage of understanding. A wall has been built up 
between capital and labor, and too few men on one side 
of that wall realize that the men on the other side were 
cut from the same bolt of cloth as themselves. 

What we need in human relations is just this 
"understanding" of the other fellow. We will have 
it when all of us are educated in a better school of 
citizenship, to a better appreciation of the principles 
of the ' ' square deal, ' ' and of our obligations to others. 

Mr. Foster thinks that the marshaling of capital 
and labor into two great hostile armed camps tends 

[64] 




[65 



to promote class misunderstanding and industrial un- 
rest. His opinion of these great combinations is 
interesting. He says: 

To me they appear about as sensible as it would be for 
wives, husbands, and children to form separate national 
unions in an attempt to settle the domestic difficulties in 
individual households. 

Perhaps they have served a useful purpose, if only 
in showing us that some better solution must be found. 
That better solution is the Golden Eule. It is the 
most sensible, practical and profitable of all rules. 
Its observance brings us that which money cannot 
buy. When all of us have learned to apply it in our 
daily lives, it will no longer be necessary for some of 
us to band ourselves together to fight the others. To 
teach the golden rule in all human relations is the 
chief aim of universal training. 

When w r e meet a man from our own community we 
feel, and rightly, that we have a basis for mutual 
understanding. This man has been brought up in the 
same environment, he must have the same point of 
view as oneself in many matters. If he is a graduate 
of the same college we feel strongly inclined towards 
confidence and trust. We understand this man and 
he understands us. In a sense we are brothers, sons 
of the same Alma Mater. We will be glad to have 
social and business relations with him, and are almost 
sure to find him congenial. 

[66] 



In our great university the laboring man will be 
taught that it is not by strikes, violence and destruc- 
tion, but by better and more conscientious work that 
labor may win the sympathy and cooperation of cap- 
ital, and the respect, friendship and support of the 
community. And the capitalist will learn that it is 
not by aloofness, lack of sympathy, and brutal, ar- 
rogance that the best effort of labor is called forth, 
but by tact, understanding and friendship, by treat- 
ing the laborer like a human being and a brother 
instead of a mere profit-producing machine, by giving 
him and his children a chance to enjoy the better and 
brighter things of life, by being as solicitous for the 
welfare of the worker as for the output of the mine, 
mill or factory. The human element cannot be lost 
to sight. We cannot command the best efforts of 
labor, unless we accord the laborer decent human 
treatment. And we cannot have industrial prosperity 
without a contented laboring class which puts con- 
science and a sense of duty into its work. And after 
all, what are we here for — merely to produce goods, 
or to live happily and usefully I AVe must not confuse 
the means with the end. 

The employer and the community are fairly en- 
titled to honest and conscientious work. And the la- 
borer is entitled to decent human treatment. Strikes 
and lockouts, which diminish production, increase 
the cost of living, bring suffering and misery upon 
thousands of innocent people, and react injuriously 

[67] 



on both capital and labor, are an insane method of 
adjusting disputes. They are a substitution of selfish- 
ness, enmity, and brute force, for reason, justice, kind- 
liness, and good-will; and ultimately aggravate the 
conditions they aim to improve. Wiser, saner and 
more effective methods must be found. 

Hate begets hate, strife incites strife, violence 
arouses violence, force is met by force. Tolerance, 
forbearance, courtesy, sympathy, kindness and love 
ultimately (if not immediately) inspire like senti- 
ments, as surely as beauty inspires admiration, as 
the magnet draws the steel. This is not fancy, but the 
most patent of facts and the most general of laws, 
as any man may prove for himself, any time, any- 
where. It is not only idealism, but the plainest prac- 
tical common sense, which all intelligent people 
should apply to their own advantage, not allowing 
themselves to be misled by the apparent exceptions 
to which all rules are subject. 

Let all thine aims be truth's, thy country's and thy 
God's. Be noble, be just, be kind, and the nobility that 
lies in other men, sleeping sometimes, but never dead, will 
rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

If all this be true, and we know that it is undoubt- 
edly true, how great will be the progress towards 
mutual understanding, mutual tolerance and gen- 
erally better relations when the capitalist and the 
laborer are both graduates of the same great school 
of good citizenship? Here the son of the capitalist 

[68] 



and the son of the laborer will rub elbows and mingle 
in good fellowship — not one capitalist and one labor- 
ing- man, but all of them. Each will learn the point 
of view, the hopes, ideals, ambitions of the other. 
Each will learn that the other has a soul. This can- 
not fail to secure a better understanding and sym- 
pathy in their future business relations. 

A conference of employers recently convened at 
the national capital to formulate recommendations 
designed to secure better relations between capital 
and labor in the interests of industrial peace and na- 
tional welfare. Their principal recommendations 
were that what was needed was more conscientious 
and efficient work on the part of employees, and a 
higher sense of their obligations to their employer 
and to the community, and on the part of the em- 
ployers a greater interest and more sympathy in the 
personal welfare of the employees. The more specific 
recommendations of the conference were based upon 
these fundamentals. 

Universal education in better citizenship which 
reaches both employees and employers, alone can ac- 
complish such results. 

Universal training will bring the future capitalist 
and the future worker together, will teach them their 
common dependence upon their community and their 
duty to it, as well as their duty to each other. They 
will form friendships and associations which will en- 
dure long after they have left the training camp 

[69] 



which will unite them in an understanding and sym- 
pathy now too often lacking. 

The Industrial Committee of the Merchants' Asso- 
ciation of New York, after a careful study of condi- 
tions, concludes that industrial unrest is due to : 

1. A short-sighted determination by both capital 
and labor to obtain the maximum compensation with- 
out considering the interests of others. 

2. Lack of understanding and mutual confidence. 

3. The law of supply and demand as the governing 
factor in the fixing of wages and conditions ; in brief, 
the policy of giving the worker no more than one is 
forced to give him. 

The Committee suggests the following remedies : 

1. Recognition by all of the fact that national pros- 
perity is the fundamental to be achieved, and is in 
the best interests of all. 

2. Eecognition of the fact that the interests of em- 
ployer and employee are common. Arrangements for 
more direct contact between employers and em- 
ployees, particularly through the medium of indus- 
trial conferences. 

3. A more humane treatment of employees than 
that dictated by the law of supply and demand. 

And it adds that any plan which depends solely 
on the volition of the employer will not be generally 
effective, as it will lack uniformity, force and perm- 
anence. 

It must be perfectly apparent that better educa- 
tion alone can enable us to apply these wise remedies. 

[70] 



Labor strikes in this country have been too often 
engineered by selfish agitators. In many cases they 
have not actually represented the will of the majority 
of the workers involved, who have been coerced by 
selfish and unpatriotic leaders. In such cases, if the 
strike is successful, the will of a very small minority 
of unpatriotic men is imposed upon the great mass of 
patriotic citizens — a great and most obnoxious de- 
parture from democratic majority rule. 

Such strikes are plainly unjustifiable and not en- 
titled to public sympathy and support. They could 
be greatly reduced in number if not entirely pre- 
vented by the adoption of certain wise and entirely 
legal measures as follows : 

1st. Elimination of the anarchistic element which 
foments such disturbances. This is accomplished by 
greater watchfulness and more drastic treatment not 
only of foreign anarchists, but of the anarchistic 
element of our native born citizens. Our laws have 
not been sufficient to afford us proper security, nor 
have they been always rigidly enforced. In our 
jealousy of liberty we have permitted too much 
license to anarchy. 

2nd. Improving the mental and moral condition of 
our working classes, their intelligence and sense of 
obligation to the public, in order to render them proof 
against the poison of anarchistic influences. This is 
accomplished by universal education. 

3rd. Compulsory industrial conference or arbitra- 
tion as a condition precedent to any strike or lockout. 
In the case of strikes which would seriously affect 

[71] 



the public the latter should be represented at such 
conferences. 

4th. Publicity given in advance of a strike to the 
grievances of both sides. In too many cases the pub- 
lic has no sufficient information by which it might 
judge the merits of the dispute. These disputes are, 
as a rule, eventually decided by the great force of 
public opinion. If the public be informed in advance 
of the details in dispute the weight of public opinion 
would often be applied to force a reasonable settle- 
ment without resort to a strike or lockout. 

5th. A requirement of law that no strike shall be 
called except by free vote of a majority of the work- 
ers involved. The governmental authorities could 
take the necessary steps to insure a fair and secret 
ballot. 

6th. A requirement of law that due notice be given 
the public before a strike shall become effective. 

7th. Other laws placing labor unions on a legal 
status — fixing their responsibilities, defining their 
powers and limitations, and regulating strikes, so far 
as this is found necessary in the interest of the 
public, which has an undoubted right to protect its 
interests as against the acts of any class. 

Most of these precautions would be the natural 
result of a better education of all our citizens, since 
they will appeal to all fair minded men. They would 
not deprive labor of its great defensive weapon, the 
strike, but they would prevent an unwarranted, irre- 
sponsible, reckless or criminal use of a weapon so 
dangerous to the public. No fair minded laboring 
man can object to a just, legal regulation of his acts. 

[72] 



There appears to be no sound reason why the labor 
union should not be as fully amenable to law and 
as fully responsible to the public as other corpora- 
tions. By giving to the labor union a full legal status 
its power for good would be greatly increased. It- 
could not be used by irresponsible or criminal persons 
as a weapon to injure not only the public, but labor 
itself. Recognized as a legal instrument and acting 
in strict accordance with law, the labor union would 
be assured public sympathy and support in every 
just cause and would not, as is now often the case, 
sacrifice public support by illegal acts, even when its 
cause is just. 

Profit sharing by employees has been frequently 
suggested and often tried as a means of promoting 
industrial efficiency and better relations between capi- 
tal and labor. 

A commission which investigated the results o£ 
profit sharing and a voice in the control of corpora- 
tions by employees, found that they varied from ex- 
ceedingly good to exceedingly bad, according to the 
intelligence of the participants. .The commission re- 
ported that no scheme of profit-sharing could suc- 
ceed unless the employees assumed a responsibility 
for increased output and decreased cost of production 
in exchange for their increased compensation. In 
other words, no corporation can afford to share its 
profits with its employees unless the employees, both 
individually and collectively loyally put forth their 

[73] 



best efforts to increase the efficiency of production. 
Profit sharing to be a success must be mutually profit- 
able. "Where the employees have put forth such 
efforts under intelligent stimulation by employers, 
both parties to the agreement have profited. Such 
results are so natural and inevitable and so in accord 
with reason and common sense, that it would not 
appear to be necessary to resort to investigation to 
establish the truth of them. 

A minimum living wage we must have, certainly, 
but after that the output and earnings of a corpora- 
tion are of prime, fundamental importance in fixing 
upon a proper and possible compensation for em- 
ployees. If the employees can increase the output or 
reduce the cost of production, and there is no doubt 
that in most cases they could do so if they would, they 
have an irresistible argument in favor of shorter 1 
hours or better compensation — an argument far more 
powerful than any strike, and in. fact the only valid 
argument. It is the duty and the interest of em- 
ployers to educate their employees to this point of 
view, and many wise employers have done so. But 
it is a difficult, almost a hopeless matter, when em- 
ployers are arrogant, selfish and uncompromising, 
when employees are dull, sodden, illiterate, ignorant, 
unambitious (though not unselfish) and without con- 
science in their work, and when either party lacks the 
intelligence, the sympathy and understanding which 
enables them to appreciate the other's point of view* 

[74] 



How easily this much to be desired end can be at- 
tained when all are educated to a higher moral plane, 
a higher intelligence and a better understanding of 
their obligations and their own best interests. Ignor- 
ance is impervious to reason and is fatal to success in 
any enterprise. Universal training is the only prac- 
ticable means of replacing the weakness of ignorance 
by the power of knowledge in all our people. All 
other benefits and advantages follow in its train as 
certainly as night follows day. 

More loyal and efficient service by us all, resulting 
in a greater output of goods and production of 
wealth, is the only sound and enduring basis for 
higher wages, profit sharing or any other form of 
increased compensation. Higher wages are justifi- 
able and possible only when the worker is more in- 
telligent, more skilful and more conscientious and 
hard-working in actually producing the wealth from 
which, alone increased compensation can be paid. 
More knowledge, correct vocational training and a 
higher "spirit of service" will increase the efficiency 
of the worker and insure him a higher compensation 
than the unskilled and Tin-conscientious man can de- 
mand. Industrial warfare, which is waste and de- 
struction, will never accomplish the results desired. 
It affords only temporary advantages to labor (if 
any), which are gained, moreover, at the price of 
great misery and suffering to the innocent members 
of the community. Strikes, followed by higher wages 

[75] 



without higher efficiency of production, impoverish 
industry and increase the cost of all commodities. 
Higher wages are soon overtaken by higher costs, and 
fresh strikes simply make conditions worse than 
before. By this vicious alternation the unfortunate 
millions, the great majority, who have received little 
or no increase of compensation, are steadily reduced 
to comparative poverty. 

Mr. W. P. Gr. Harding, President of the Federal 
Reserve Board, says: 

If the world would declare an industrial truce for six 
months it would do more to bring down high prices than 
workers can ever do by strikes and agitation. 

The blame for the unhappy conditions in industry 
which followed the great war are not to be laid at the 
door of labor alone. The employer who enjoys in- 
creased profits as a result of the loyal support of 
his employees must be generous enough and sensible 
enough to share his prosperity with the employees 
who have made it, if he expects them to be or to re- 
main contented and efficient and interested in the 
success of the business. 

It is not by industrial warfare but by the creation 
of more wealth that we shall win prosperity for all. 
To create more wealth labor and capital must substi- 
tute cooperation for strife, neither expecting nor de- 
manding inordinate profits at the expense of the other. 

Increased prosperity for the worker is, in the long 
run, based solely upon his ability and his willingness 

[76] 




[77] 



to produce more wealth. Professor Millakan, of the 
University of Chicago, says: 

How unimaginable the stupidity, and how pathetic the 
blundering of that class of labor leaders who are endeavor- 
ing the improve the conditions of labor by limiting produc- 
tion. Such efforts can bring only disaster. 

The Council of National Defense says : 

Goods and not money are the means of life. Better ma- 
terial standards of living are impossible without producing 
more goods. 

Charles M. Schwab says: 

I am not in favor of artificial methods of reducing the 
cost of living. There is but one way to do it, and that is 
by economy, industry and efficiency. 

Increased production is dependent on mutual confi- 
dence and good-will and cooperation between labor 
and capital. These can never be attained by brute 
force. Not until our employers and our workers have 
been educated to a full appreciation of these funda- 
mental truths can there be any marked improvement 
in industrial relations, the welfare of labor, and that 
of the community at large. 

Recently, at the very time when German labor was 
voluntarily giving two hours per diem of extra work, 
in a patriotic effort to build up Germany's shattered 
industries, a certain class of labor in the United 
States has demanded a six-hour day, and a five-day 
week, accompanied by increase of wages. Such de- 
mands at this time are short sighted. Any demand 

[78] 



which handicaps or impoverishes industry, and whose 
attempted enforcement brings suffering on the com- 
munity at large, is fundamentally unwise and unjust, 
especially at this time. 

Release from any industrial slavery which allows 
the worker no time for recreation, family associations 
and the other better things of life, is most earnestly 
to be desired, in the interests of humanity and as a 
matter of public policy. And in recognition of this 
truth we have now generally established the eight- 
hour day. But we cannot carry the matter too far, 
especially in this present time of stress. And work 
is one of "the better things of life," perhaps the best 
of all. If certain classes of workers demand and ob- 
tain a six-hour day, others may logically be expected 
to make similar demands, and the ultimate result 
would be the ruin of industry. "The forty-hour 
week," says the National Board of Farm Organiza- 
tions, "will neither feed nor clothe the world." 

S. A. Taylor, Director of the American Institute of 
Mining Engineers, says : 

Whether this Utopian dream of a six-hour day will ever 
be realized is hard to foresee, but at- the present time it is 
certainly impracticable, owing to the shortage of the neces- 
sities of life. 

He gives us some further sound advice, as follows : 

The high cost of living, of which we hear so much, cannot 
be relieved until production of all commodities is brought 
up to a point where there is enough to provide everyone 

[79] 



with all he needs. When we have reached this point the 
high cost of living will disappear. When we have gone 
beyond this point the high cost of living will be replaced 
by a low cost of living. Consequently anything that leads 
to an increase in production is to be advocated, and any- 
thing that limits the prouction of necessities whether by 
combinations of either capital or labor, or both, should 
not be permitted. 

According to all the advice of all those best quali- 
ecl to judge, it is more production, not curtailed pro- 
duction, that we need if American industry is to 
establish and maintain supremacy in competition 
with the rest of the world. Our industries are pass- 
ing through a critical period, and our prosperity and 
happiness as a nation should not be jeopardized by 
unnecessary disturbance of these industries at this 
critical time. There is a crying need that every 
patriotic citizen should render, not the least possible 
service, but the fullest measure of which he is capable. 
Let us all work together to repair the ravages of war. 
Let us march arm in arm along the broad road to 
prosperity w r hich is wide open before us, and not seek 
devious by-paths, full of thorns to tear our flesh and 
delay our progress. 

The prosperity of labor is dependent upon the 
prosperity of industry. Impoverished or ruined in- 
dustries mean ruin for labor as well as capital. A 
prosperity such as we have never known or dreamed 
of is before us. But it is not to be won by industrial 
civil w r ar. It is to be won only if every fellow will 

[80] 



put forth the best that is in him, working with the other 
fellow and not against him, working for a common end 
and a common benefit in which all may share. This is 
not only patriotism, it is common sense and good 
business. 

Roger W. Babson, the statistician, has issued some 
interesting figures on the high cost of strikes. He 
says a conservative estimate of the loss in wages to 
strikers alone, during the year 1919, is $500,000,000. 
Mr. Babson points out that a strike in a basic in- 
dustry, like coal, steel or transportation, results in 
injury to many other related or dependent industries, 
and in throwing millions of men, in addition to the 
strikers themselves, out of employment. Our in- 
dustrial system is so complex, and its parts so inter- 
dependent, that trouble in any industry inevit- 
ably involves others, and reacts unfavorably upon 
our whole people. These indirect losses are the most 
serious feature of the industrial warfare through 
which we are passing. The price of a prolonged coal 
strike, for example, is almost beyond computation. If 
persisted in it means the eventual cessation of all 
industry, and famine in the land. 

The strike spirit becomes epidemic and permeates 
the whole country. It affects the man who is not on 
strike, making him restless, discontented and less 
efficient. It produces discord when there is need of 
harmony, and lowers the vitality of industry as a 
whole. Mr. Babson estimates that the total loss from 

C 81 ] 



strikes mounts well into billions of dollars. He 
points out that as long as this loss continues there is 
no hope of relief from high prices. He says : 

Viewed in this light the ease against the strikes is a 
black one. From the point of view of the whole people 
they must be considered a very expensive method of ad- 
justing industrial disputes. If a better way can be found 
it will put money into the pockets of every one of us. 

American industry at the present time is unable, 
because of industrial warfare, to meet the demands 
upon it or realize the profits that await it. There is 
a hostility between employers and employees that is 
hurtful to the interests of both, and still more hurt- 
ful to the millions of unfortunate citizens who find 
the cost of living doubled while their incomes remain 
almost stationary. Is labor perhaps, demanding more 
than its fair share just at this time when the rest of 
us are suffering so much? We have endured great 
losses and destroyed much wealth during the war and 
these must be repaired and replaced. If capital and 
labor at this time will settle down to their work in 
hearty cooperation, with a loyal good will and with 
the interests of the whole nation at heart, they can 
double the output of industry, increase the profits in 
like proportion and reduce the cost of living to the 
unfortunate millions whose incomes have not been 
increased. And they will thus usher in an era of 
prosperity in which all may share. 

[82] 



A prosperous employer who realizes that Ms pros- 
perity is due to the loyal support and conscientious 
hard work of his employees, is far better able and far 
more willing to meet the just demands of those em- 
ployees than one whose profits are curtailed and 
whose business is threatened with ruin by industrial 
civil war. This would seem to be the most elemen- 
tary common sense, which should appeal to any reason- 
ing mind. It is by building up industry, not by tear- 
ing it down, by loyal hard work and not by con- 
tinual strife, that the hopes of labor may be realized. 
It is in the power of labor and capital, by putting 
forth at this time their best and most loyal efforts, to 
realize for us all the greatest prosperity we have ever 
known, and it is labor and capital in cooperation who 
alone can do this. In this prosperity labor and capi- 
tal will share with the rest of us and not at the ex- 
pense of the rest of us. There will be enough for all. 

Is labor willing for a time to moderate its demands, 
and will capital be content with moderate profits in 
the interest of prosperity for us all? And can both 
be brought to a realization of the fundamental truths 
that increased production of wealth is the only sure 
basis for increased material prosperity and better 
living conditions, and that mutual helpfulness and 
cooperation are the only sure means to increase pro- 
duction ? We hope and believe it will prove to be so. 
And we know that education in better citizenship 
will insure the results so greatly to be desired. 

[83] 



We have referred to the improvement in the phys- 
ical conditions of life. It is not alone nor even 
chiefly this which we seek, but the improvement in 
spiritual conditions which naturally follows. Mere 
creature comforts and conveniences do not alone 
make life worth the living. They are of little value 
except as they afford us the opportunity to enjoy the 
higher things. 

Sympathy, mutual understanding and good will 
between employers and employees are the funda- 
mental needs. Without these any method of insur- 
ing harmony in industry, such as profit sharing, is 
only a palliative, which does not reach the seat of the 
disease. The golden rule covers all cases. When we 
have accepted it as the guide for our conduct all our 
difficulties will be easily overcome. There is no dif- 
ficulty in settling a dispute when each party has the 
interest of the other at heart. 

We need the "golden rule," not the "iron rule" 
nor the "wooden rule," in all human relations. Na- 
tional interest must replace class interest. Universal 
training will make us one class — American citizens 
in the best and fullest sense. 

Discipline and Team Spirit 

The form of human endeavor which calls for the 
highest development of concerted action, and which 
is also man's oldest occupation and that in which he 
has had the most experience, is war. So important 

[84] 



here is concerted action that the military art has de- 
veloped discipline to a higher degree than any civil 
vocation. Discipline, a much abused and misunder- 
stood word, is no more than a method of insuring 
efficient concerted action. It is the inculcation of 
that spirit which causes men to put forth the best 
that is in them in concerted action "with their fellows. 
It involves intelligence, resource, judgment, adapta- 
bility, loyalty and steadfastness, obedience to lawful 
authority, courage and self-sacrifice — in short, every 
quality that goes to make a man. Training methods 
which do not teach this sort of discipline are faulty. 
Military methods of inculcating discipline are not the 
ideas of military cranks or martinets. They were 
born of long experience and hard necessity in the 
tragic struggle of the race for existence. They are 
the results of all the experiences of all the leaders 
of men during thousands of years of almost continual 
warfare. If any particular trainer of men does not 
secure the desired results in the inculcation of dis- 
cipline,, it is the man, not the principles that are at 
fault, for the principles have stood the test of the ages. 
That the principles of discipline have not been 
applied in civil vocations to as great an extent as in 
the military is because the need has been less ap- 
parent, inasmuch as failure in concerted action is 
not always promptly followed by disaster, bloodshed 
and death, as in war. Restraint of any kind is irk- 
some to those not accustomed to it, especially to 

[85] 



Americans, who are probably the most undisciplined 
race in the world. Many Americans will not subject 
themselves to discipline unless driven by the hardest 
necessity, a fact of which employers generally are 
painfully aware. Nevertheless in every vocation 
which calls for concerted action, and that means most 
of them, there is needed and is found a certain dis- 
cipline, differing from that of the military chiefly 
in that it is usually less thorough and less effective. 

In every school, every industrial or commercial 
establishment, we find discipline of a sort. As con- 
certed action becomes more and more characteristic 
of man's activities there is a growing demand for a 
better discipline and a more uniform standard. 

The discipline which insures concerted action in 
warfare, man's most difficult and dangerous occupa- 
tion, will produce equally good results when applied 
to industry. "With universal training every man will 
acquire more or less of the spirit of discipline in his 
early youth, and the standard aimed at will be uni- 
form. If the standard is not all that is desired, it 
is in your power, as an American citizen, to change 
it and better it, for it is your government and your 
representatives who will devise and carry out this sys- 
tem of education. And it is not only your right but 
your duty to see that your boy and your neighbor's 
boy receive the best training and discipline that it is 
possible to give them. 

Here the boy will learn respect for constituted 

[86] 



authority, and the habit of obedience to that author- 
ity. "We are inclined to smile as we think of the 
waywardness of our boys, and we say "boys will be 

boys." But in the lack of amenability to discipline 
of the average American boy we have the seed of one 
of the most serious deficiencies of our nation. At the 
training camp the boy will be taught most thoroughly 
the lesson of obedience to proper authority, and no 
nonsense will be tolerated. This does not mean that 
the spirit of any boy will be broken, but he will be 
taught that he is entering upon a man's responsibili- 
ties, and that law and order, and not license and dis- 
order, are the bases of society in America. 

Discipline teaches cooperative action and encour- 
ages initiative. If it does not it is the wrong kind 
of discipline, not suited to our national temperament, 
and it can and will be corrected. 

Military methods have been introduced into the 
police forces of many American cities. In every case 
the police have become neater in appearance and 
more alert and punctual in the performance of their 
duties, a better police and more creditable public 
servants as a result of military training. 

Discipline is a virtue which impels us persistently 
to employ the most intelligent means of which we are 
capable in the accomplishment of a well understood. 
purpose. It implies self control, obedience, dogged- 
ness, but proscribes foolhardiness and bravado. Dis- 
cipline is vital in military affairs, but it is vital also 

[87] 



in all other affairs of life. The ability and the will 
power to bring all one's knowledge and energies to 
bear in the accomplishment of one's ends makes for 
success in every walk of life. The undisciplined man 
cannot bring his own powers to bear. Men of mod- 
erate ability who are zealous and persistent, register 
more successes than brilliant men who endeavor to 
substitute cleverness for application and hard work. 
The thoroughly disciplined man is loyal, dependable 
and efficient under any stress. To instill such dis- 
cipline into the youth of America is one of the chief 
aims of universal training. 

Discipline includes team spirit. As a member of 
a team a man learns to play the game always in har- 
mony with the plan of the team as a whole, and he 
plays not to win applause for himself but to win the 
game for his team. Whether we play together or 
work together, we find that team spirit is necessary. 
It is easier for the average individual to appreciate 
the need for team spirit in a baseball team, than it 
is for him to realize that the same spirit should per- 
vade the community as a whole, the nation as a whole. 
But the same kind of team spirit that makes a strong 
baseball team makes also a strong nation. Our nation 
is a team, and team spirit is above all what we need 
to-day. As a nation we need discipline as we need 
education. They go hand in hand and in fact dis- 
cipline is a part, the most important part, of edu- 
cation. 

[88] 




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[89] 



Discipline, real discipline, the kind that produces 
real results, is not a rule of fear but a rule of love and 
loyalty. A real leader must possess the knowledge, 
ability, experience, force and courage necessary to 
command the utmost confidence and respect of his 
followers. But granted these he must also possess the 
high character, the kindness of heart, the tact and 
human understanding and sympathy which will en- 
able him to command their love and loyalty, which 
means their best efforts. He must be obeyed not 
because he is feared and therefore hated, but because 
he is respected, honored and loved. The secret of 
leadership is to inspire confidence and loyalty, not 
fear. A real leader is followed through fire and water 
by men who love him, and whom he has taught to love 
the cause for which he stands. The personality of 
such a leader "inspires one to greater efforts," 
as Charles M. Schwab said of Andrew Carnegie. 
For such a leader men put forth the best that 
is in them, willingly lay down their lives if 
necessary, even though he be far away. Loyalty to 
such a leader inspires even hitherto weak men, and 
calls forth a courage and stamina they were never 
before known to possess. The leadership of fear has 
but slight hold on the weak and cowardly, and none 
at all on the strong and courageous. It is a false 
leadership which stimulates and develops all the low- 
est and most sordid traits of its unwilling followers, 
and always fails in the crisis. The leadership of love, 

[90] 



on the contrary, ennobles its followers and fills them 
with a divine enthusiasm which causes them to forget 
self in their devotion to a beloved leader and a noble 
cause. The authority of fear is uncertain, unreliable, 
evanescent ; the authority of love is positive, depend- 
able, enduring. 

It is very necessary then that we distinguish be- 
tween the real leader, and the military martinet- who 
is no leader at all. It is very necessary that, as a na- 
tion, we learn what real leadership and real loyalty 
to a leader mean. For without real leaders and loyal 
followers no human endeavor can achieve continuous 
success. The power of leadership and the spirit of 
service are quite as necessary, and at the same time 
more difficult to secure, in the most humble and peace- 
ful occupation, as on the field of battle, where glory 
beckons. These constitute real discipline, both civil 
and military, which is not merely "subordination to 
authority," but "the spirit of service, the will to do." 
Such discipline is essential to every organized effort 
of man, whether in war or peace. We have need of 
more such real leaders and disciplined followers. Can 
they be developed in our great school of citizenship? 
There is no question that they can be, for the qualities 
of potential leadership exist in many and the spirit 
of loyal service in most men, though they too often lie 
dormant for lack of opportunity and teaching. That 
we do not have more real leaders and more loyal 
soldiers in the battle of life is only because we have 

[91] 



never developed them, because we have never taught 
leadership and service in an intelligent manner on a 
large scale. "We can do so if we wish. 

There are many great Americans who fully under- 
stand and consistently apply the principles of true 
leadership, who develop loyal followers and teach 
other men to be leaders. Most of our successful men 
are of this type — that is why they are successful. But 
their influence, great though it be, is yet limited usual- 
ly to those with whom they come in contact. It is not 
enough that we should have a few such leaders. The 
great principles of leadership and service, in other 
words, true discipline, the spirit which impels a man 
to put forth the best there is in him, should be taught 
to all our citizens. Universal training is the evident 
means by which this may be and should be ac- 
complished. 

Universal Training and National Health 

There are many benefits to be derived from a 
proper system of universal training, several of which 
alone are sufficient to justify the undertaking. Im- 
portant amongst these benefits is the improvement in 
the physical health of the nation. 

The health and vigor of its citizens is the basis of 
the wealth, the strength and the happiness of a nation. 
The general physical tone of the nation has a vast 
economic influence and, commercially speaking, may 
be either an asset or a liability. 

[92] 



As to the individual it would seem scarcely neces- 
sary to point to the tremendous part in a man's life 
that is played by his health, or lack of it, were it not 
for the fact that most people are not fully aware of the 
extent to which their efficiency is governed by their 
health. Many do not realize that their capacity for 
both work and recreation is far below par. and that 
they are being robbed of much that they might achieve 
and enjoy. 

There are few of our people who can or do seek 
a doctor when suffering from minor ailments or 
diseases which often in time become serious. Vast 
numbers of poor people suffer such ailments without 
even realizing that anything is wrong. The sickness 
and physical deficiencies revealed by the draft during 
the late war have forever dispelled the false idea 
that the American workingman is so well paid, so 
well nourished, housed and clothed, and so intelligent, 
that he needs no further attention to his health. 

We have prided ourselves on the excellent physique 
of our young men. we have boasted of our interest in 
athletics, and have thought ourselves a strong and 
healthy race. But the physical examinations in con- 
nection with selective service have proved that we 
have not so much cause for pride as we supposed. 
Out of every 100 young men examined 16 were found 
to be totally unfit for any kind of service, and an 
additional 16 were unfitted for full, active service. 
Thus in every 100 young men 32 were physically un- 

[93 ] 



fit for field service. In most cases their physical de- 
fects were either preventable or curable, and were 
the result of carelessness or neglect on the part of 
the men themselves, or their parents. At present then, 
of every 100 boys who pass the threshold into man- 
hood, 32 are physically unfit to take up the full duties 
of industrial life or to become husbands and fathers. 
Many of those remaining, in fact the majority of 
them, are not as fit as they should be. There is food 
for thought in these figures. 

Many a man takes the best of care of his horse or 
automobile and neglects or abuses that most marvel- 
ous of all machines, his own body. Few parents do 
their full duty in developing and perfecting the 
bodies of their children, or in teaching them to care 
for and maintain them. Vast numbers of them never 
even think of the health of their children until they 
are so ill that it is necessary to call a physician. And 
when the temporary indisposition has been relieved 
they promptly again forget all about the matter. 
Thus not only is the average span of human life far 
below what it should be, but it fails also to realize the 
fullest possibilities of usefulness and happiness. A 
large part of the misery and loss of efficiency and 
happiness due to ill health is actually preventable if 
the individual or the family devotes the proper 
amount of attention to its physical life. 

Health and strength mean happiness and the power 
of accomplishment. Lack of them is such a handicap 

[94] 



as to practically place the average man "out of the 
running." This is the day of the strong, virile man. 
A few persons of unusual will power have achieved 
success in spite of physical weakness, but such are the 
rare exception. 

A headache, a slight derangement of the stomach, 
will almost totally unfit us for work. The man who 
awakens fresh and strong, his physique vigorous and 
healthy and his faculties keen and alert, is certainly 
far better fitted to face the daily round of duty than 
one whose vitality is either permanently or tempor- 
arily at a low ebb, and who has no reserve of strength. 

Physical fitness is of importance, however, not only 
in the struggle for daily bread and the achieving of 
success in life. It is the first, and perhaps the only 
indispensable requisite to the enjoyment of life. He 
who is perfectly healthy cannot long remain un- 
happy, whatever his circumstances. And happiness 
has a great economic value; it is worth more than 
anything else in the world, and in the last analysis is 
what we all strive for and should try to give to others. 
This is amply proven by the fact that any one of us 
is willing to economize in the necessaries of life, in 
order that we may enjoy the luxuries and pleasures. 
Good health is the greatest luxury, the most priceless 
treasure God gives to His human creatures. 

No man may demand more of his Creator and his 
country than "a sound mind in a sound body." If, 
blessed with these, he cannot make his way and 

[95] 



achieve success and happiness in this land of oppor- 
tunity, the fault lies within himself. "When we say 
"a sound mind" we mean a normal mind in which 
sound ideas have been implanted. The nation has 
no higher nor more vital duty than to insure that its 
children shall be born with sound minds and sound 
bodies, and that their physical health shall be pre- 
served and their minds developed by right training. 
Thus are these priceless heritages assured to the na- 
tion, for these children are the fathers and mothers 
of the coming generation, and like begets like. 

Most of the ill-humor, quarrelsomeness, morbidity 
and pessimism that make life so unpleasant for our- 
selves and those with whom we come in contact, are 
due to sickness, disordered nerves, low vitality, or 
some other form of physical derangement. How 
often do we say to a friend when we find him in a 
particularly bad humor, "Your liver is out of order/' 
or "You have indigestion to-day." We speak in jest, 
perhaps, but the jest has its foundation in fact and 
experience. Physical health is the first essential of 
happiness. While we may occasionally be unhappy 
even in good health, we certainly cannot long be 
happy without it. Of course we do not mean to say 
that a life cannot be useful without being happy, but 
generally this is true, for one who is unhappy does 
not often transmit happiness to others. 

And it is not for himself alone that a man should 
desire good health, but for his family. His children 

[96] 



have a right to be born with a heritage of strength 
and vitality. And they have a right to be taught how 
to conserve their health. 

This priceless gift of good health the nation can 
make to its young men through universal training, 
and through these young men to their unborn 
children. 

Personal cleanliness is the principal visible evidence 
of gentility and good breeding, and the first that peo- 
ple of refinement demand of those who would be their 
associates. Cleanliness is more a matter of habit than 
of opportunity. The unwashed remains unwashed 
even with a private bath at his disposal. The man 
who is by nature cleanly contrives to continue clean 
and neat under the most discouraging circumstances. 
Universal training will inculcate the habit of cleanli- 
ness. That fact alone is enough to justify it. "Clean- 
liness is next to Godliness," and is the first step 
towards Godliness, and the best insurance of health. 

Healthy and wholesome recreation and amusement 
are nearly half of life. "Tell me how a man spends 
his leisure hours, and I will tell you what manner of 
man he is. ' ? The man who goes in for sane, healthful 
and clean recreation is always a good citizen, he works 
the same as he plays — fair, clean and above-board. 

At the average college athletic training too fre- 
quently takes the form of intensive and often harm- 
ful exercise for the few, and utter neglect of the 
many. At the training camp all will receive thor- 

[97] 



ough instruction and ample opportunity for recrea- 
tion. They are indeed compelled to take recreation. 

General Gorgas, the world's greatest sanitary ex- 
pert, the man who made the Panama Canal possible, 
says that during the late war 13,000 cases of venereal 
disease were prevented during a period of six months 
in the training camps in the United States alone. 
That is to say disease which would have developed 
had the men been in civil life, was prevented. And 
this was true in spite' of the fact that the army had 
no control over the sources of infection. 

The influence of military training and discipline 
on venereal disease is plainly shown by the fact that 
amongst the drafted men in the late war 96 per cent 
of all venereal disease was contracted before induc- 
tion into the service, and only 4 per cent subsequently. 
In the American Expeditionary Forces the number of 
cases of venereal disease per 10,000 was reduced from 
76 in November, 1917, to 9 in September, 1918. 

The work accomplished in diminishing venereal 
disease during the war could not have been done in 
25 years of peace, except through the agency of uni- 
versal training. 

Wholesome association with moral young women, 
those in charge of camp reading rooms and restau- 
rants, and visiting relatives and friends; and frank 
instruction of the young men as to the dangers of 
venereal diseases, will be the best possible safeguards 
for the morality of the nation. Boys actually suffer- 

[98] 



ing from venereal or any other diseases will be re- 
turned to the nation clean and cured. 

Public health authorities have stated that the in- 
struction of our young men in sex hygiene and the 
improvement in the public health and morals that 
would result, would alone justify the system and the 
cost of establishing and maintaining it. 

Venereal disease is perhaps the most persistent 
scourge of society. Few people realize the full extent 
of the evil, nor the untold misery inflicted upon inno- 
cent women and helpless children, multitudes of 
whom are born blind, deformed or imbecile as a result 
of the sins of their fathers. It is not too much to hope 
that under the influence of universal training these 
dread diseases may be almost entirely eradicated. 
This would be accomplished by the compulsory ex- 
amination and treatment of all young men, and a 
continuous campaign of education. The results act- 
ually obtained in the army plainly indicate that 
venereal disease is preventable. 

Malaria, tuberculosis, functional heart derange- 
ments, chronic stomach and bowel disorders, tooth 
decay and gum infection, defective nervous organiza- 
tion, enlarged tonsils, adenoids, appendicitis, hernia, 
varicocele, "flu," pneumonia, meningitis, are promi- 
nent in the long list of physical ailments of which 
universal training would be the implacable foe. The 
death rate from typhoid fever in the army is almost 
nil. In civil life it continues to take toll. 

[99] 



Tooth decay and gum infection are very prevalent 
amongst our people, and their effects on the national 
health are most deleterious. It is now known that 
many infections start in the roots of the teeth and 
spread to the entire system, and that many people die 
from these infections. They are due almost entirely to 
neglect of the teeth, whose dangers few people appre- 
ciate. A few months of expert supervision and treat- 
ment of the teeth and instruction in mouth hygiene 
would have a most beneficial and lasting effect upon 
the health of the nation. Many of our leading dentists 
enthusiastically declare that an opportunity afforded 
them to examine the teeth and gums of every young 
man in the nation and to cure defects and bad habits 
before it is too late, would in itself justify universal 
training and repay its cost. Specialists in other 
prevalent diseases hold similar opinions. 

The assembly of large bodies of men in camp will 
give to the medical profession not only opportunities 
to cure millions of cases of physical defects and ail- 
ments, bringing untold benefits to the young men 
and to the nation, but also opportunities for ex- 
perience and study such as they have never before 
enjoyed, from which the nation 'and humanity gen- 
erally will reap the benefits in better methods for 
the wholesale prevention of diseases of many kinds. 
It is even conceivable, in fact highly probable, that 
some of our most dreaded scourges will be completely 
eradicated once we give the doctors a chance to get 

[ 100 ] 




[ ioi] 



at them. It was the American army that discovered 
the cause of yellow fever in Cuba, and by the appli- 
cation of military measures of sanitation eradicated 
the dread disease in that island and also in Panama, 
making possible the construction of the Panama 
Canal. These efforts are now being continued by-the 
Rockefeller Foundation, under the direction of Gen- 
eral Gorgas, and will unquestionably result in ridding 
the earth of the scourge of yellow fever. Other 
plagues will yield to like skillful and systematic cam- 
paigns. Colonel Ashford, another eminent army 
surgeon, stationed in Porto Rico, has found that the 
hook-worm is one of the chief causes of the "laziness" 
of tropical peoples, and by his persistent efforts to 
eradicate it he has added greatly to the agricultural 
and general efficiency of the natives of that island. 

Some 600,000 people die annually in the United 
States from preventable disease. Practically all of 
them could be saved by a systematic campaign for 
the improvement of the national health. If they are 
worth only five dollars a day apiece, a moderate esti- 
mate of the value of human life, the annual economic 
saving thus effected would be a billion dollars. Uni- 
versal training would be the most effective means of 
preventing this great waste. 

New York City's economic loss from tuberculosis 
alone has been estimated at 82 millions of dollars 
per annum. More than half of this is preventable. 
During the great war 50,000 Americans were killed 

L 102 ] 



in battle, or died of wounds, in a year. During- the 
same year tuberculosis in the United States killed 
150.000. 

Statistics place the capitalized value of an average 
human life in America at about $5,000. The legal 
value of human life has in several instances been 
placed at $10,000. Taking the former figure, the 
capitalized loss to the nation from 600.000 prevent- 
able deaths per annum is three billions of dollars. 

Amongst 30.000,000 wage earners in our country. 
an average of nine working days each, or a total of 
270.000,000 days of labor per year, is lost through 
sickness, most of it preventable. This means a loss in 
wages alone of something like a billion dollars a year, 
not to mention the loss to industry, the cost of medical 
attendance, and the misery and suffering endured. 

It is a conservative statement that universal physi- 
cal and hygienic training would effect a reduction of 
at least 50 per cent in this sickness, which would be 
worth, all costs considered, a billion and a half dol- 
lars annually for this item alone. This is several 
times the estimated cost of universal training (not 
including the cost of the regular army). It is plainly 
evident that the hygienic value of universal training 
alone justifies it, even demands it, without any con- 
sideration of its other manifest advantages in making 
better and happier citizens, and protecting the nation 
against disorder from within and aggression from 
without. 

[ 103] 



Under the system of universal training every boy 
in the land will come under the observation of trained 
medical and surgical specialists, who will cure ail- 
ments and correct deficiencies in early life, and teach 
the boys how to take care of themselves. There can 
be no question, not the slightest doubt, that such pre- 
cautions would increase the average span of life by 
many times the length of the period of training, 
besides which it would increase the industrial 
efficiency of the boys or the amount of work they 
could do. Thus instead of the boy and the industry 
losing time by his giving up several months or even 
a year of his life, they actually gain time in the work- 
er 's increased capacity for production and the longer 
span of his life. If you think that your boy is per- 
fectly healthy and needs no instruction in right liv- 
ing (in which you are probably mistaken) then think 
of "the other 7 ' less fortunate one whose good health 
is your concern, because it affects your community 
and your country. The entire nation and generations 
of posterity are suffering or will suffer from easily 
preventable disease. 

The boys will be taught and required to practice 
the rules of hygiene and right living, so that these 
rules will become fixed habits in their lives. They 
will include such vitally important matters as keep- 
ing the teeth and mouth clean, keeping the skin 
healthy by frequent bathing, deep breathing and the 
value of fresh air, care of the feet and all the vital 

[ 104 ] 



organs, personal precautions against disease, the value 
of systematic exercise, proper diet and moderation 
in eating, etc. 

Scientific medical and surgical attention to every 
young man in the land, the elimination of bodily de- 
fects in early youth, the building up of the physique 
by scientifically directed exercises and outdoor life, 
the teaching of personal hygiene, cleanliness and 
other good habits cannot fail to result in a mighty 
improvement in the physical tone and stamina of the 
race. It will be the purpose of this training not only 
to give the youth a sound body but to teach him to 
keep it so, and to impress upon him the importance of 
hygienic rules so that he will be unlikely thereafter 
to depart from them. Such an impression, to be en- 
during and beneficial, must be made by actual demon- 
stration of the physical benefits resulting from right 
living. The average American pays too little atten- 
tion to mere admonitions concerning his health. He 
is apt to regard such advice very lightly, if at all. 
But he cannot fail to be powerfully impressed when 
he actually sees and feels the improvement in his own 
physical condition. And such an impression endures 
through life. 

Physical improvement, even if unaccompanied by 
mental training, fosters also the improvement of the 
mind. For a sound body affords opportunity for 
mental development and expansion which is lacking 
in a body frail and sickly. Universal training would 

[105 ] 



accordingly not be limited to those regarded as phys- 
ically fit for military service in the event of war. 
Those not physically fit would receive even greater 
benefits in improved health and preparation for their 
civil pursuits. 

Universal training will make these benefits perma- 
nent, giving to every young man of the nation the 
advantages of this splendid instruction at the age 
when he is best fitted to receive it. The schools 
cannot accomplish such results, although they should 
do all that is possible in the way of physical improve- 
ment. The schools are concerned primarily with other 
matters, and it is asking too much of our teachers, 
with their wretchedly inadequate salaries, that they 
should be physical culture experts in addition to 
their other important qualifications. 

Also there is need for uniformity and system in this 
training, which cannot be attained in the schools of 
48 separate and independent states. It can be at- 
tained only by the power of the Federal Government, 
which will control all the time and all the actions of 
the students, and command the services of the best 
physical culture experts in the world. The training 
should be administered at the age when it will have 
the most lasting effects on the bodies and also the 
minds of the boys, and this is beyond the school age. 

To those who say that the young man can obtain 
all the physical training he needs in the home and in 
the school, and that universal training is not neces- 

[ 106 ] 



sary for this purpose, we need only reply that he 
does not obtain such training either in the home or 
in the school; that is to say, only in comparatively 
few cases. We need only to point to the marvelous 
improvement in the physique of millions of young 
men who have returned from France or from the 
training camps, an improvement which every father 
and mother in America have seen for themselves. 
You may ask any physician, and he will tell you 
that the benefits to the health of young America from 
this training are incalculable, and that its effects will 
be seen for years in the strength and beauty of chil- 
dren yet unborn. 

Anyone who has seen the "setting-up exercises " 
given to a company of soldiers by a snappy, enthusi- 
astic and expert physical instructor, can understand 
why our boys came home from France with broaden- 
ed chests, straightened backs, brighter eyes and red- 
der cheeks, and an air of confidence and self-reliance. 

Statistics indicate that the members of the Ameri- 
can Expeditionary Forces gained an average of about 
12 pounds in weight during the course of their mili- 
tary service. 

If you wish to have an accurate picture of the 
physical benefits of military training compare in your 
mind the shuffling, stoop-shouldered, hollow-chested, 
pale-faced mob that went to our training camps with 
the clean, upstanding, alert, ruddy cheeked soldiers 
who came home from Europe. Or go to West Point 

[ 107 ] 



at a time when a new class is entering that institu- 
tion, and compare these new arrivals with the other 
cadets. 

Any one who has compared a group of average 
young men of the laboring classes who may be seen 
congregated at an amusement resort on Sunday after- 
noon, with any body of soldiers of the same age, re- 
turned from France, cannot have failed to be im- 
pressed with the immense physical superiority of the 
latter. They are more erect, walk with a firmer step, 
have clearer eyes, ruddier skins, and a far better 
muscular development. And the mental and moral 
superiority of the trained men which are apparent on 
closer contact are at least as great as their physical 
superiority. They are more tolerant of the ideas of 
others, less bigoted, more thoughtful, more adaptable, 
more self-respecting. These are assets which remain 
with men throughout life, and which the struggling 
poor cannot obtain without government aid. To such, 
universal training would afford opportunities for 
healthful living conditions, outdoor life and recrea- 
tion, such as are now enjoyed only by the sons of the 
well-to-do in expensive private schools, colleges or 
summer camps. 

It is perhaps on " guard duty" that one can see 
the most striking proof of the effects of training and 
discipline on physique and general efficiency. The 
"raw recruit" stands before his officer with his 
shoulders hunched up, his stomach protruding, his 

[ 108] 



feet sprawled apart, his shoe-strings hanging, his hat 
on the side of his head, one or more buttons of his 
blouse unfastened. He holds his rifle in a slip-shod 
fashion, his whole figure is limp and relaxed. His 
eyes roll about and he answers the questions of the 
officer with rambling arguments, grinning the while 
in a sheepish, apologetic way. The picture is not 
overdrawn. Every officer in the service has seen 
just such a spectacle, many times. A few months 
later the same man stands before the officer. He is 
as straight as an arrow, his chest out, his shoulders 
square, his heels together, his person and dress are 
clean and orderly. His keen eyes look straight into 
those of the officer, wavering not an instant. With a 
serious, intelligent expression he answers all ques- 
tions shortly and sharply, in a few r distinct words. 
It is a "before and after" picture we wish every citi- 
zen of America could see. It seems to epitomize and 
concentrate in the person of one man, all that we say 
in this volume. 

This improvement in the physique of the nation is 
one of the compensations of war. But it is not neces- 
sary that w r e should have war in. order to gain such 
benefits — that is too much like the people w T ho burned 
their barns in order to have roast pig. 

Can you appreciate, fellow citizens, what it will 
mean to our beloved country when universal training 
gives us every year nearly a million fine young men 
whose bodies have been made clean, strong and vigor- 

[109] 



ous, and who have been thoroughly taught how to 
keep them so? And whose minds and sonls within 
are as clean, pure and strong as the bodies which 
contain them? We shall be a race of supermen. 
There will be no others on earth to compare with us. 

Diffusion of Benefits 

The influences of right training and the manifold 
benefits it confers, are not limited to the men who 
actually receive such training. Their knowledge, 
their ideals, their patriotism, must inevitably be 
transmitted in generous measure to all the members 
of their own immediate and future families, and, in 
lesser degree only, to all those with whom they come 
in contact in industrial and social life. By the in- 
fluences of heredity and association the benefits re- 
ceived by the young men will of necessity be diffused 
amongst all in the nation, including children yet to 
come, who will be better born and better reared be- 
cause they will have healthier and wiser fathers. 

As the ripples from a stone dropped in a pool over- 
spread the entire surface, so in time will these benefits 
become apparent in every man, woman and child of 
the race. 

Universal Training for Women 

Womankind will thus profit indirectly from this 
training. But universal training for herself would 
directly benefit woman in the same manner, and to 

[no] 



quite as great an extent as it benefits man. Woman, 
in fact, lias even less opportunity for right training 
than man. She is a greater slave to her environment, 
with less chance to escape from it if it is not con- 
genial. The physical benefits of proper medical at- 
tention, hygiene, outdoor life and exercise, would be 
even more striking in the case of the girls than in that 
of the boys. 

The bills now before Congress contemplate train- 
ing for the male sex only. But when its benefits have 
become apparent we will certainly extend them to in- 
clude the girls. In fact, the women themselves, the 
mothers, will be the first to demand camps for girls 
when they see the camps for boys in operation and 
realize the advantages that their sons are enjoying. 
We want our girls to be strong, healthy, loyal, effi- 
cient and patriotic, no less than our boys. For we 
love them just as much, and we want them to enjoy 
the same opportunities to lead happier and more use- 
ful lives. 

Your Boy and the Other One 

The future of America lies in h^r boys. Upon the 
youth of the country depend its continued prosperity 
and safety and its progress. The boys of to-day are 
the workers, the managers, the capitalists, the states- 
men, the leaders of to-morrow. Each generation pass- 
es on to the next the traditions, the policies, the pos- 
sessions and responsibilities of the nation, 
[in] 



The business of being an American citizen is not 
to-day what it was in the days of our colonial an- 
cestors. There were then no large cities with their 
perplexing industrial and social problems, none of 
the great industries with their myriad factories, which 
have so completely altered family and community 
life. There were none of the "classes" we have to- 
day and neighbors were better acquainted and more 
closely associated. There were no capitalist nor labor- 
ing classes, nobody was either very rich or very poor. 
In those early days nearly everybody led the same 
life; all were farmers and pioneers. The frontier 
was the horizon for every man and the task of extend- 
ing it and overcoming its hardships and dangers 
brought our forefathers into closer relation and pro- 
moted democracy and unity of creed. Our people 
were bound together by common and simple needs and 
interests, by similar modes of life and close associa- 
tion. Practically all were of one race and one lan- 
guage — fundamental essentials to national unity. 
Life was simple and natural. 

To-day we have a vast number of complex influ- 
ences in our national life; cities, factories, railroads, 
machinery, which confer many benefits, but present 
at the same time many problems and dangers, such as 
unhealthful and unnatural modes of living, greater 
temptations, more opportunities for immorality, dis- 
honest or criminal enterprises, the segregation and 
social isolation of entire classes of citizens, greater 

[ 112 ] 




[113] 



possibilities for unobserved and unaided poverty, 
suffering or disease, and other problems well known 
to the student of economics and sociology. 

We are just beginning to realize the dangers to 
national life inherent in our modern complex mode of 
living, and to appreciate the problems connected 
with modern industry. Vast numbers of people are 
employed in factories in a mode of life that separates 
them almost completely from their fellow-beings in 
other vocations, and tends to form them into classes 
having their own peculiar, special interests and view- 
points, with little or no conception of the fabric of 
our national system as a whole. 

We have changed our laws, our ways of living, our 
modes of thought and action. Many things ; in fact, 
most of the things we used to do for ourselves, are 
now done for us by others. We have a thousand 
needs and a thousand relations that were unknown 
in the simple, pastoral lives of our ancestors. The 
community, the state and the nation now control 
many things that were formerly the prerogative of 
the individual. Man is becoming more and more a 
specialist, and in spite of the influences of news- 
papers, telegraph and railroads, he is becoming in 
many ways more and more narrow in his life. He 
tends to form classes based upon environment and 
occupation, and to become too much concerned with 
his own affairs or those of his class. He has special 
interests, peculiar and selfish ways of thinking, he 

[ 114 ] 



tends to lose the national and develop a class or in- 
dividual point of view. Never before has it been so 
true that half of us do not know how the other half 
lives, nor what the other half thinks about. 

All this tends to break up the solidarity of the an- 
cestors who made us a nation. We are less homo- 
geneous than we used to be. Life is more interesting 
for some of us, perhaps, but more confining and' more 
narrowing to the mass of our citizens. It is difficult 
to grasp our relationships, our mutual dependence, 
our common, national interests. 

We have received into our midst vast numbers of 
immigrants, and have paid too little attention to the 
Americanization of these foreigners. We have tol- 
erated the formation of centers or colonies of foreign- 
ers who do not speak or read the English language, 
who teach their own languages in their own schools 
(if they have any, and they usually do not), who keep 
their own ideals and traditions and learn none of 
ours. There are "little Kussias," "little Italys," 
"little Germanys," in America. 

Our educational system has attained no uniform 
standard. It has done too little to teach citizenship 
or foster patriotism, and has failed to reach the 
masses of our population. We have millions of il- 
literates, most of whom have no conception of the 
principles upon which our government is based, and 
^ho care nothing about them. These people, being 
deprived of the privileges of learning the thoughts 

[115] 



of our best minds through the medium of books and 
newspapers, are at the mercy of demagogues, false 
prophets and bad leaders. 

These masses of foreign people, and native illiter- 
ates, are centers of infection in our national life, 
whose menace we are just beginning to appreciate. 

In directing the affairs of the nation the older gen- 
eration has a grave responsibility which it cannot 
evade. It is a double responsibility in that the mem- 
bers of each generation are not only guardians of the 
nation's welfare, its traditions and institutions, trus- 
tees in whose hands rests the sacred legacy passed 
down from our forefathers, but also the guides and 
teachers of the younger generation to whom they are 
to pass on the trust. Upon each generation rests the 
duty of fitting its sons and daughters for the part 
they must play in the future, a part which is grow- 
ing continually more difficult and exacting. It must 
see that the shoulders which are in their turn to bear 
the burden, are strong and capable. 

In the world war when one fighting unit was re- 
lieved by another it had merely to turn over the 
sector for which it was responsible, with the orders, 
supplies and equipment. The incoming organization 
had already been trained back of the line and came 
up fully prepared to assume its responsibilities and 
" carry on." In the life of the nation, however, not 
only must the " front" be maintained intact and 
turned over to the newcomers in better order than 

[ H6 ] 



that in which it was found, but the ''relief" is cre- 
ated, organized and trained by the holders of the line. 

There are those who say: "Let well enough alone. 
What was good enough for our fathers is good enough 
for us, and what is good enough for us is good 
enough for our children." Such a creed is fatal to 
progress. Things are never "well enough." Our 
civilization does not and cannot stand still. If Ave 
cannot carry it forward we must expect to see it go 
backward. 

The most casual observer of the times must realize 
that we are unquestionably advancing into a future 
so complex in its manifold relationships, and so stu- 
pendous in its possibilities for good or evil to the 
race, as to stagger the imagination. We live in an 
age of wonders. The achievements of science to-day 
are so marvelous and intricate that the highest in- 
telligence, technical knowledge and training are de- 
manded of those who would direct the machinery of 
civilization. The field of human knowledge and pos- 
sibilities is now so great that one man, however in- 
telligent and efficient, can cultivate only one little 
plot of it. This field contains inestimable potentiali- 
ties of benefit and profit to man but, in the balance of 
right and wrong it contains also inestimable poten- 
tialities of evil and disaster. 

Never has there been a more vital need for intelli- 
gent direction of the affairs of the nation, or for 
patriotic cooperation and team spirit on the part of 

[117] 



all our citizens. We recognize the necessity for de- 
veloping expert service in everything except citizen- 
ship. "We talk much of efficiency and specialization, 
but we have done virtually nothing to develop effi- 
ciency in service to the community and the nation. 
We have been advancing so fast that we have not 
been able to see clearly where we are going, we have 
steered a haphazard course. We are a brilliant, acute, 
and withal a well meaning, altruistic generation, but 
we are not properly organized nor properly trained. 
Our chief characteristic seems to be a hit-or-miss 
type of brilliancy that depends too much ujjon chance 
and too little upon well reasoned and well established 
policy. We have indeed worried along or stumbled 
along, but the going is every day becoming more diffi- 
cult and we are doing little to provide sound train- 
ing for the generations who must administer an in- 
creasingly complex social and industrial system. 

Is it right that we should pass on to our children 
a haphazard educational policy, a mass of unsettled 
social, industrial and economic problems, and a marv- 
elous assortment of scientific inventions and dis- 
coveries, all pregnant with incredible potentialities 
for the comfort or for the misery of mankind, with- 
out setting these children to a careful study of the 
real purpose of living, and a comprehensive, well 
conceived system of preparation for the duties of 
citizenship now presented and still to be presented 
by the new conditions of progress? 

[ 118 ] 



Neither ourselves nor our children will be permit- 
ted to worry along. The world war and the conditions 
of to-day strongly emphasize that fact. The dangers 
of the future lie both without and within our bound- 
aries. They cannot be met and overcome by an un- 
trained or a half-trained generation. Russia to-day 
is a tragic example of a nation that is a victim of its 
own lack of training and education. The frightful 
internal disorders of that unhappy country are due 
to the general ignorance and lack of training of the 
mass of the people. They were not prepared for the 
emergency which has overtaken them. Freemen must 
be trained. Democracy and liberty depend upon 
knowledge. 

The average thinking man of to-day cannot fail 
to realize that the foundations of democracy in 
America are not as firm as they should be. There is 
too much unrest and discontent, too many outbreaks 
against law and good order, too much callous disre- 
gard by certain classes of the rights of the community. 
Our national life presents the appearance of mael- 
strom of economic and physical disturbance. The 
structure of liberty totters on an insecure foundation. 
There is a lack of unity, of cooperation, of community 
spirit; there is a need for more patriotism and a 
deeper love of country, for men trained in the busi- 
ness of being an American citizen. 

It is true that lack of vision in the past has largely 
brought about the present situation. Had we exercised 

[119] 



a little more forethought in teaching good citizenship 
to our children we would be to-day a closer knit and 
stronger people, free from many of the evils and 
dangers that now menace us. Lack of vision at the 
present time will merely aggravate these conditions 
and make life unendurable for our descendants. 

The fathers of to-day, taking note of present con- 
ditions and the past neglect which is largely re- 
sponsible for them, should be deeply concerned with 
the training of the youth of our nation — the men of 
the future. If conditions are bad to-day, can they be 
better to-morrow if we do not cut out the canker at 
the heart of the fruit ? 

The average man is loath to admit that anything 
is wrong with him or his. He dislikes to have his 
faults or those of his son pointed out to him. He will 
not object, however, to an impersonal generalization. 
To the man who can find no mote in his own eye and 
no possible mote in the eye of his son, let us say that 
the American boy of to-day, that "other" boy, needs 
better training in citizenship. As one of the fathers 
of America and as a man who loves his country and 
wishes to see it better and happier, a country that 
will be safe for his chilclrens' children, he should be 
able to see that there must be a radical change in our 
educational system, and the training of our boys. If 
not for his own boy, then for that other boy — the 
poor ignorant boy who has never had a chance, the 
boy of foreign parentage who knows nothing of our 

[120] 



traditions and outlook on life; for the reckless, un- 
disciplined or unprincipled boy, whose environment 
has never taught him morals or good citizenship. 
Boys of this kind form a very large part of the coming 
generation, a very large and important part of the 
citizens of to-morrow. 

Is it not well then that we should consider, calmly 
and coolly, the possibilities of a system of universal 
training that will be harmful to no boy, but bene- 
cial in every way to every one? There is no more im- 
portant, no more vital question before the American 
people to-day than that of Universal Training for cit- 
izenship in its fullest sense. 

The Civilization Yet to Come 

The civilization in which we live to-day is in small 
part, only, of our own making. It is a heritage 
handed down to us by all our forefathers since the 
beginning of creation. It is not true that there is 
nothing new under the sun, but it is true that the 
new is founded upon the old. Each generation in 
its turn, starting where the last one left off, adds its 
share to the sum of human knowledge, now so vast, 
and passes the accumulated whole on to posterity. 
If we should destroy the painfully assembled monu- 
ments of civilization, and place our children untaught 
and unequipped in the primeval woods, human prog- 
ress would have to start again from the beginning. 
[ 121 ] 



As the sum of man's knowledge and his control 
over the forces and agencies of nature increase, the 
life of the individual becomes more and more com- 
plex. Heavier and heavier are the responsibilities 
laid upon him, and as these increase from year to 
year and from generation to generation better and 
better education is demanded as a preparation to 
meet them. As the man of to-day requires more 
education than the one of a hundred years ago, so 
the man of the future will require more than is need- 
ed to-day, and the foundations for this higher edu- 
cation must now be laid. Progress is absolutely de- 
pendent upon education. It is those with knowledge 
who alone carry civilization to a higher plane. The 
ignorant not only add nothing themselves but are 
stumbling blocks in the pathway of progress. They 
are not only useless but actually harmful. "They 
toil not, neither do they spin." 

There is a higher, a nobler, a more magnificent 
civilization which is yet to come. It is the civiliza- 
tion which our children shall create in a rosy future. 
Shall these children of ours not progress at least as 
much in the century which is to come as we have 
done in that which has passed? 

Civilization does not stand still. It is growing 
constantly better, but also more exacting. The edu- 
cation and training of yesterday do not fit us for the 
civilization of to-morrow. 

; [ 122 ] 



The world wants men, better trained men, broader 
men, with better ideals and less selfishness. 

It is the destiny of America to be the greatest, the 
wealthiest, the most powerful nation the world has 
ever seen. Shall we be also the best and noblest of 
nations, an example to the world? 

There is a greater civilization before uj^ 
must be achieved by greater preparation than we 
have yet made and greater efforts thanwe have yet 
put forth. It will not come as a matter of course. 

Abraham Lincoln said : 

The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day ; it is 
for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence 
all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great 
task events have devolved upon us. 

It is vitally necessary that the rising generation be 
trained for the more exacting duties and responsibili- 
ties that will rest upon them. It is a matter of 
national concern that proper habits of thought and 
action be inculcated in our young men, upon whom 
will devolve the future responsibility for our govern- 
ment, our industries, our agriculture. 

National training alone will meet the urgent need. 
It makes for better citizenship, higher ideals, better 
physique and character, greater industrial efficiency. 
It will be the most powerful instrument in history for 
the development on a gigantic scale of a race of bet- 

[ 123 J 



ter men and women, supermen who alone can create 
and maintain that greater civilization. 

What constitutes a state? 

Not high raised battlement nor labored mound, 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned, 

No ! Men, high minded men, 
Men who their duties know, but know their rights as well, 

And knowing, dare maintain. 

We are not content that our children should mere- 
ly fill our places, follow in our footsteps, maintain 
the institutions which their fathers have erected. 
Deep in our hearts is the eternal hope that our chil- 
dren, whom we so love, shall be better and nobler than 
our poor selves. Deep in the heart of the humblest 
amongst us is the unvoiced prayer that his children 
may live fuller lives, rise to greater heights and en- 
joy the happiness that has been denied to him. Every 
father and mother cherish this sweetest and most un- 
selfish of human desires. 

How can we realize this hope; what is the answer 
to our prayer? It is education. By giving to our 
children the best possible education we give them 
the best chance for success and happiness. They are 
not to maintain our civilization only. They are to 
build upon the foundations we now lay a higher and 
nobler civilization, something better than we know 
or can imagine. Let us iioav lay the foundations of 
the civilization that is yet to come by giving to our 
children the strong bodies, the alert minds, the brave 
hearts and pure souls which will enable them to 

[ 124 ] 



achieve more than our poor efforts have achieved. 
No ; they are not to fill our poor places, these dear 
children. They are to go higher and farther. In 
their beauty, their strength, their wisdom, their pur- 
ity, they are to stride onwards and upwards into 
realms of glory and happiness that we have seen but 
dimly, as in a prophecy or a dream. 



[126] 



PART II 
WHAT UNIVERSAL TRAINING MEANS 



Origin and History 

COMPULSORY military service in time of war, 
or even compulsory training in time of peace, 
are indeed nothing new, either in theory or 
practice. In prehistoric days every able-bodied man 
of a tribe was a warrior as a matter of course, skilled 
in the use of the weapons then in vogue, and subject at 
all times to the orders of the chieftain or military 
leader. The same system is found in some of the un- 
civilized tribes of our day. 

In early colonial times outdoor life was the rule. 
All able-bodied men carried arms and were skilled in 
their use. In each community a considerable portion 
of the male population was organized and trained for 
military service. 

All of the ancient empires of western Asia and 
southeastern Europe were military states, whose sub- 
jects were under the obligation of service. Indeed, 
without an efficient military system these empires 
would not have been built up and could not long 
have continued to exist. It was the Greek army, or- 
ganized and trained by Philip of Macedon, with which 
his son, Alexander the Great, extended Greek influ- 

[127] 



ence and civilization to the whole of what was then 
regarded as the civilized world. 

Mention of universal military training is found in 
the Bible, where it is related that Moses, who was re- 
sponsible for the security and independence of the 
Jewish nation, caused all young men to be trained to 
bear arms and to hold themselves available for mili- 
tary service. 

The most highly developed systems of universal 
service in war, made effective by universal training 
in peace, are those of the two leading military nations 
of our day, France and Germany. The methods of 
the two nations are practically identical, and as a 
military measure by far the most effective in history, 
as the late war in which they were the principal com- 
batants, plainly demonstrated. 

The German system had its origin in the restric- 
tions imposed upon Prussia by Napoleon, following 
the downfall of that state at the battle of Jena- 
Auerstadt, in 1806. The standing army of Prussia 
was limited by the terms of the peace to 40,000 men. 
General Scharnhorst conceived the idea of using the 
standing army as a school in which men would receive 
training for one year, after which they would be re- 
turned to civil life, a new class taking their places. 
Thus the standing army would never exceed 40,000 
men, but the trained reserve would be increased by 
about 15,000 annually. By this system Scharnhorst 
created the trained and disciplined army which, un- 

[ 128 ] 



der Marshal Bliicher, turned the tables on Napoleon, 
and encompassed his defeat and downfall at the battle 
of Waterloo, only nine years after Jena-Auerstadt. 

In the military system of Seharnhorst the German 
Empire had its birth. Bismarck, the statesman, plan- 
ned the greater Germany, but Yon Moltke, the soldier, 
created it when he destroyed in two short campaigns 
the military power of Austria and of France (1866- 
1870). 

With the removal of the restrictions on the size of 
the standing army, the length of the period of train- 
ing (in Germany) and the number of men drafted 
annually, were increased, until the system became 
thoroughly effective and practically universal. That 
is to say, every man in Germany (and in France), un- 
less exempted for physical deficiencies or certain other 
stated reasons, received military training. 

Following the great war the standing army of Ger- 
many, that army which has so often disturbed the 
peace of Europe, is again limited, this time to 100,000 ; 
but, profiting by the experience of Xapoleon, the 
allies have prescribed that this force shall be recruit- 
ed by voluntary enlistment only, which restrictions, 
if enforced, render universal military training in 
time of peace impossible. They do not, however, 
prevent Germany from using her standing army for 
the training of a large corps of officers, the first 
essential of an effective fighting force. 

Many other countries besides France, Germany 

[ 129] 



and Japan (which has the German system), had 
prior to the war, adopted some form of military 
training in time of peace. Many of these countries 
are republics. Their systems are patterned in a gen- 
eral way after that of Germany, but are in every case 
less effective as a military measure, chiefly because of 
insufficient periods of training. The length of the 
period of training in the standing army in Germany 
was two years and in France three years. The Swiss 
system, which has been frequently recommended as a 
model for the United States, combines efficiency with 
very low cost, both in time and money. The Swiss 
period of training is very short. It has been several 
times increased in length, but is still regarded by the 
Swiss military authorities as insufficient. 

The Constitution of the United States confers on 
the Federal Government the power to enforce uni- 
versal service in war and universal training in peace. 
In the only two wars of any magnitude in which we 
have been engaged (the Civil "War and the World 
War), we have been compelled to resort to obligatory 
service in order to secure sufficient force to carry 
them on. At no time in our history, however, have 
we resorted to universal training in time of peace. 
The world war has awakened for the first time a 
general interest in the subject on the part of the 
American people. 

We perceive therefore that universal training was 
born of military necessity. But the events of the 

[130] 



late war plainly indicate that in these days, when en- 
tire nations take part in armed conflict, the military 
necessity is even greater than in the past, when the 
fate of nations was decided by relatively small forces, 
while the great mass of the people on both sides stood 
helplessly by, awaiting the issue of the conflict. "We 
have also seen the possibility of combining with this 
vitally necessary military training a much broader 
training which will create not only better soldiers but 
better citizens. This broader training will insure 
greater vocational efficiency in peace, it will elimi- 
nate illiteracy, and will be a school of citizenship 
which will knit into a closer union all the men and 
women of our land. The system proposed for America 
is quite different from any that has ever been em- 
ployed by another nation. It is not designed solely, 
nor even primarily, as a military measure. Dis- 
cipline, character building and vocational training 
are of special usefulness in the pursuits of peace. 

The systems of France and Germany are frankly 
military. Although they undoubtedly confer inci- 
dental benefits in the way of improved national 
health, greater industrial efficiency and better citi- 
zenship, their avowed purpose is national security 
guaranteed by military strength. Our own system 
will have a broader motive. In addition to affording 
military training it will aim to make our young men 
better citizens and more successful and useful in their 
civil pursuits. 

[131] 



"We must therefore divorce ourselves from the false 
idea that this system of training is merely a military 
measure designed solely to create a military machine. 
It is to be a school for citizenship, and affords also mil- 
itary protection because the good citizen makes always 
a good soldier. Discipline has been defined as "that 
virtue which impels us to employ all the intellectual, 
moral and physical energy of which we are capable 
in the accomplishment of a purpose or the perform- 
ance of a duty.' 7 That is the discipline which will 
be instilled into our youth, and it is a discipline 
of which we are much in need, and which makes for 
success in civil no less than military life. 

The systems of other nations may serve as exr 
amples, but not as patterns. Our system must be 
truly our own, suited to our conditions and the genius 
of our own people. Its aim will be the preservation 
of America, and the progress of our civilization along 
the lines laid down by the founders of this land of 
liberty. 

How the System Operates 

The following summary will give a general idea of 
the operation and details of the system of universal 
training. 

Every boy, except those who are exempted for 
stated reasons, will be required to take the pre- 
scribed course of training during the regular period 
cf the year in which he reaches a specified age. Thus 

[132] 



there will be yearly classes, each class being made up 
of all the young men who reach the specified age 
during a given calendar year. 

The country will be divided into a number of dis- 
tricts, some twenty or more, with a camp located at a 
favorable site in each district. The camps will thus 
be reasonably close to the boys' homes, reducing the 
amount of travel and affording parents and' friends 
an opportunity to visit them during the course of 
their training. 

The camps, generally, will probably be organized 
on a divisional basis; that is, each camp would train 
a complete division each year. The division is the 
combat unit, a complete small army in itself. Larger 
units, such as corps and armies, are composed of a 
number of complete divisions, with certain special 
troops attached. In our service a division includes 
4 regiments of infantry, 3 regiments of field artillery, 
1 regiment of cavalry and 1 regiment of engineers, 
with the necessary trains, and special troops, medical, 
signal, etc. Its strength is approximately 30,000 men. 

Divisional camps would make for uniformity and 
simplicity in administration, training, and subsequent 
mobilization for war (if necessary). In case of war 
the men who would fight together in the division 
would be those who had been trained together in the 
same camp at the same time, and the men in each 
company would generally be from the same town or 
locality, and acquainted one with another. 

[133] 



Certain special camps for special training may, 
of course, be provided, and there will be Naval camps 
where training for the navy or merchant marine will 
be given. So far as practicable attendance at naval 
camps will be optional. That is, a boy will be given 
his choice of attendance at a naval or at a military 
camp. 

While these training centers are referred to herein 
as " camps/ 7 they are more properly cantonments or 
colleges, as permanent buildings will eventually be 
provided. Water supply, sewerage, lights, good 
roads, and all other necessary conveniences and facili- 
ties will be installed. The camps will be in fact mili- 
tary colleges. In colder weather the boys will live 
in barracks, and receive instruction in class rooms and 
shops. In summer they will spend most of their time 
in camp in the country. The ' ' summer camp ' ' for 
boys is a luxury now limited to people of means. 
Under universal training every boy will enjoy its 
advantages, without cost to himself or his parents. 

At the camps the students will be organized into 
military units corresponding to the more important 
branches of the service (Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, 
Engineers, Signal Corps, etc.). They will sleep in 
barracks and eat with their fellows in the regular 
messes. All their hours of training and recreation 
will be carefully controlled and regulated, but ample 
freedom for wholesome pastime will be allowed. 

[134] 



The curriculum, or course of training at these mili- 
tary colleges, will be determined by the best and 
wisest educators, civilian and military, whom the 
Federal government can obtain. The details of train- 
ing -will all be carefully worked out. To some extent 
they will be developed by experience. Perhaps in the 
beginning they will exhibit some errors, but that has 
been true of every human institution. "We have had 
enough experience during the late war to indicate 
quite plainly the kind of training that our young 
men require, and to prove beyond a doubt that the 
results herein outlined can, and w 7 ill, be obtained. The 
important thing is the decision of the nation to un- 
dertake such training and make a start. Its details 
may safely be left to the educational experts and to 
experience. 

In a general way it may be stated that each student 
will be given the training necessary to make him a use- 
ful citizen and a good soldier. The instruction will be 
intelligently adapted to the needs and capabilities of 
each student; that is to say, the curriculum will not 
be absolutely rigid. All will receive the fundamental 
military instruction, training in discipline and citi- 
zenship, and character building. The illiterate will 
be taught to speak, read and write understandingly. 
Illiterates should properly be required to spend an 
additional period at the camp, prior to the regular 
course, to cover the additional instruction which 

[135] 



they will need. Such a provision of law would 
have a powerful influence in compelling those of 
foreign birth or parentage to learn the English lan- 
guage before going to the camps, and would help 
greatly to eliminate illiteracy and its attendant evils. 

Unless the period prescribed for training should 
be too short for the purpose, all students will take 
vocational training. This will include the arts and 
commercial training as well as agriculture, the trades 
and sciences, and each boy will be allowed, under prop- 
er guidance, to select the vocation he desires, or for 
which he appears to be best fitted. For the non-mil- 
itary and vocational features of the training, expert 
civilian instructors, specially selected and trained for 
their work, will be employed, and the natural apti- 
tudes of each student will be cultivated. 

A highly intensive course of training, accomplishing 
the maximum results in the minimum time, would 
be possible at these camps: first, because the things 
to be taught are so varied and interesting, and include 
so much practical and outdoor work as to preclude 
the possibility of monotony; second, because the 
course is short as compared to that of a college, mak- 
ing it possible to sustain the interest of the students ; 
third, because the authorities will have absolute con- 
trol of all the students' time; fourth, because the 
boys are at the best age to receive intensive training, 
and; fifth, because the methods followed will be uni- 
form and standard throughout the country. 

I 136 ] 




[137] 



The habits of the young men would be carefully 
regulated, and every moment of their time accounted 
for. The processes of training and discipline are ap- 
plied with system and intelligence, gently but firmly. 
The discipline is not harsh, nor arbitrary, nor blind 
nor brutal. It does not break the spirit of youth nor 
render him an automaton. This will not be a reform 
school, but a university of citizenship. Brutal and 
harsh methods cannot live in the free air of America. 
They are not the rule at West Point, nor in our regu- 
lar army, whose officers and men are free citizens of a 
free country, like the rest of us. The system of dis- 
cipline which will be enforced at the camps is the 
result of thousands of years of experience in the train- . 
ing of men to call forth their greatest and noblest 
efforts. The young man will never be irritated, nor 
browbeaten, nor subjected to any petty annoyances. 
His self respect will never be wantonly affronted. 
He will be treated with the courtesy and consideration 
that is due self-respecting men. He will be taught 
that all that is demanded of him is attention to his 
duties and loyal, honorable and gentlemanly conduct 
at all times and under all circumstances. 

The life of the young man at the camp will not be 
one continuous round of dull duty. The duty is not 
dull, but intensely stimulating and interesting, and 
close association with worthy comrades, pursuing the 
same high ideals, is perhaps the most wholesome and 

[138] 



refreshing of life's experiences. The young man will 
be afforded every opportunity to enjoy many forms 
of wholesome recreation, which is indeed a necessary 
part of his training, since "all work and no play 
makes Jack a dull boy." 

The close application to a variety of interesting 
duties, wholesome exercise, the simple but impressive 
ceremonies, the inculcation of regular habits, respect 
for his mates and intelligent obedience to his super- 
iors, the observance of an inflexible standard of honor 
and truthfulness — all constitute a most wholesome 
training which cannot fail to be of benefit to young 
America, and to bring to the surface all that is best 
and brightest within him. 

The camps will be subject to constant inspection by 
military and civilian educational experts in order to 
keep them up to the standard and to insure uniformity 
of methods at all camps. 

As a result of close supervision on the part of the 
government, by continued experience, and because of 
the great public interest therein, the system of train- 
ing will rapidly develop to a high degree of excellence. 
There has never been any other 'institution in which 
the nation at large has taken so keen an interest. 
Inefficiency and outrageous conditions are occasion- 
ally found, and more frequently exist in peniten- 
tiaries, jails, poor-houses, insane asylums, and the 
like. This is possible only because the people gen- 

[139] 



erally have no immediate, personal, heart interest in 
such institutions, and the complaints of their inmates 
seldom reach the ears of the nation, and excite little 
personal sympathy when they do. But every citizen 
of the United States will have, sooner or later, a son, 
a brother, a near relative or a dear friend in this 
university of good citizenship, and will hence be 
vitally interested in everything connected with it, and 
constantly eager for information. The boys will write 
home to their families and friends, and the latter will 
visit them at the camps. Thus will the public be fully 
informed as to conditions, and the powerful force of 
public opinion will be exerted to correct mistakes and 
remedy deficiencies, should such exist. 

At every camp facilities will be provided for the 
accommodation of visiting relatives and friends, both 
men and women, who may come to see their boys 
during their training. It is not sought to exclude 
the public from observation of the workings of the 
system. On the contrary, public interest and public 
knowledge, insuring public support, will be the best 
guarantee of success, the greatest stimulus, and the 
most effective safeguard against any possible abuse. 
Every boy will be required to write, at stated inter- 
vals, to his parents or guardians. And every parent 
should, if at all possible, visit his boy at the camp 
during the period of training and see with his own 
eyes the methods employed and the results obtained. 
It will be a liberal education for the public as well as 

[140] 



the boys. Not only is it the right of parents to visit 
the camps, but also their duty. Thus will universal 
training become the most popular of popular institu- 
tions, for without popular interest and support it 
cannot attain its fullest measure of usefulness. 

The system as outlined herein is independent of 
any military or disciplinary training that may be 
given at schools or colleges. Such training cannot en- 
tirely take the place of that herein contemplated, 
because the conditions under which it is adminis- 
tered would not be as favorable for obtaining the 
desired results. But if a proper system of instruction 
under government control is introduced in our public 
and private schools it might operate to reduce the 
period of regular training for boys who had attended 
such schools. That excellent preliminary training is 
possible at well conducted schools, has been demon- 
strated in a number of cases. Boys who attended 
such schools might be able to complete the prescribed 
course at the training camps in less time than those 
who had not. Thus if the period of camp training 
were six months, training at an approved school might 
be regarded as equivalent to the first six weeks or two 
months of the camp training, but could not entirely 
replace it. 

The boys would be furnished with their uniforms 
and equipment, and all their living expenses would 
be paid by the government. In addition to this they 
might be given an allowance of spending money, and 

[ 141 ] 



allotments could be made by the government, when 
necessary, to families actually dependent on the boys 
for support, as was done during the late war. 

A most essential requirement of any policy for mili- 
tary training is that it must furnish a sufficient num- 
ber of trained officers to be available in case of war. 
The training which we have thus far described would 
not alone be sufficient to produce such officers, and 
additional instruction would be necessary. Candi- 
dates for a reserve corps of officers could be selected 
from the students at the camps who exhibited suf- 
ficient aptitude and capacity, and who desired to 
qualify themselves to become officers. These candi- 
dates would be given additional instruction at officers' 
training camps. They might subsequently serve for 
a short period in the regular army, following which 
they would be utilized as junior instructors at the 
universal training camps. Colleges and universities 
having approved systems of military instruction could 
also produce large numbers of men qualified, with a 
little additional training perhaps, to become officers 
of the reserve corps. These would be men who had 
passed through the regular training camps and who 
had been recommended by the camp authorities as 
possessing the capacity to become officers. These are 
only two of a number of possible schemes by which 
this vitally necessary reserve of officers could be 
created. 

Reserve officers and probably also the higher non- 

[142] 



commissioned officers, would be assembled from time 
to time for short periods of instruction or "refresher 
courses," either at the regular camps, or at special 
camps for reserve officers. They would receive pay 
during such periods, and might also, if it were found 
to be good public policy, be granted a small annual 
subsidy for a number of years, in order that the 
necessity for taking military training, in excess of 
that given to the male population generally, might 
not operate as a hardship in, their civil careers. 

Having completed their course at the training 
camps the young men would be returned at once to 
civil life, except such as might desire to take the ad- 
ditional training as officers. 

During the first four or five years after leaving the 
training camps they would constitute the "first line" 
reserves, which would accordingly have a strength of 
from 2y 2 to 3y 2 millions of men, or more than we 
sent overseas in the late war. They would not, how- 
ever, be disturbed in their civil pursuits, nor required 
to render any military service whatever, except in the 
event of a great war. Universal training does not 
mean compulsory military service. At the end of 
this period of 4 to 5 years in the "first line," the 
men would pass automatically to the "second line" 
reserves, in which they would remain until about 45 
years of age. This second reserve would be a great 
reservoir of trained men, some ten to twelve millions 
strong, available for the defense of the country in 
case of need. 

[143] 



In order to provide for rapid mobilization in case 
of a great war, men who had completed the prescribed 
training wonld be organized into reserve tactical 
units on a geographical basis. Reserve officers would 
be assigned to such units. 

The foregoing is a very general outline of the man- 
ner in which universal training may be administered, 
and its more difficult problems solved. The details, 
of course, will be regulated by law, and modified and 
improved from .time to time in the light of experience. 
The purpose in view would be to insure adequate 
training in the least possible time and with the least 
possible interference with civil pursuits. 

Benefits of the Military Phase of Training 

Aside from the purely military results gained from 
the military phase of universal training, innumerable 
benefits will accrue to the youths who participate 
therein. As we have pointed out, a most striking 
change for the better will be apparent in the physical 
condition of our young men. Every one who has seen 
a parade of some of our organizations on their return 
from France, or after a few months in our training 
camps, can testify as to the fine appearance of phys- 
ical manhood of the boys, as a result of their mili- 
tary training. The press of the country has been 
filled with articles by medical men and educators who 

[144] 



Lave observed these striking changes, both physical 
and mental, which they have described as little short 
of marvelous. 

But in addition to a good physique, which is the 
foundation of success and happiness, many valuable 
characteristics and habits which will be of incalcul- 
able benefit all through life are developed by the 
military training given to the young men. -Among 
these are the control and coordination of mind and 
body, a direct result of the military drills and exer- 
cises ; the habits of accuracy and precision in the per- 
formance of mental or physical acts, for which there 
is no better school than military training; the virtues 
of initiative and resourcefulness, which are matters of 
special consideration in military training; the habits 
of clear and quick thinking and concise methods of 
expression, which proper military training develops 
in the highest degree. All these and many other val- 
uable traits are cultivated and improved in the school 
of the soldier, and all of them will be of the greatest 
value to the young men in civil life, and to the nation 
of which they are the citizens. 

Cost of Universal Training 

It is not the first cost of a project so much as the 
dividends it pays that interests us. As a nation we 
do business on a large scale, and realize the economic 
advantages of big machines and big projects which, 
when properly conducted, are always more economical 

[145] 



than operations on a small scale. A big project for 
universal training is in keeping with our national 
genius. Efficiently administered it will pay the larg- 
est dividends of any expenditure ever made by the 
Federal government. On the other hand, a makeshift 
system conducted on a penny-wise basis would be a 
waste. It would fail to accomplish the results desired 
and the money spent on it, however little, would 
therefore be wasted. 

The cost of the system will of course vary according 
to the length of the period, the nature of the instruc- 
tion given, and the number of exemptions from train- 
ing which would be allowed. It has been variously 
estimated at from 130 to 400 millions of dollars per 
annum (not including the cost of other items of the 
military establishment, the regular army, national 
guard, etc.). The latter figure contemplated a very 
thorough instruction, extending over a relatively long 
period, with few exemptions. It may be regarded as 
the superior limit of cost, which we may ultimately 
expend if experience indicates that the expenditure 
is desirable in view of the results attained by a shorter 
period of training. 

The most reliable figures on the cost of an effective 
military policy for the United States, are those re- 
cently issued by Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., 
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Af- 
fairs. In the appendix to this volume appears a 
synopsis of the features relating to universal training 

[ 146 ] 



in a bill providing a thorough and effective military 
policy for the United States, recently submitted to 
the Senate after long study and investigation by the 
Committee on Military Affairs. The bill, though not 
perfect, embodies much of the best expert advice and 
the lessons of experience as to a proper military 
policy for the United States. In brief, it contemplates 
a small regular army, a federalized national guard, 
and universal military training. 

Senator Wadsworth states that his committee, with 
the aid of the War Department, has estimated the 
cost of our entire military establishment, under the 
provisions of this bill, as follows (figures to nearest 
million of dollars) : 

1921— $610,000,000 

1922— 623,000,000 

1923— 631,000,000 

1924— 633,000,000 

1925— 612,000,000 

1926— 591,000,000 

These estimates cover the cost of the entire program 
of preparedness, including the regular army, the 
national guard, and all expenses of whatever nature 
in connection with the system of military training for 
the youth of the country, as provided in the bill. 

Senator Wadsworth further states that, according 
to the estimates of the War Department as revised by 
his Committee, the average cost of producing a 

[147] 



trained soldier under the proposed system of uni- 
versal training would be $509 in 1921, progressively 
decreasing to $170 in 1926. The average cost of main- 
taining a trained soldier in the regular army is, he 
states, at present about $1,800 per annum, which 
plainly indicates the economy of the system of uni- 
versal training as a measure of national security. 
Mr. Julius Kahn, Chairman of the House of Repre- 
sentatives Committee on Military Affairs, who like 
Senator Wadsworth, is one of the best informed 
men in the world on military matters, states that the 
cost of Universal Training under the Senate Bill 
would be approximately $130,000,000 per annum. 
He says further: 

All told the cost of the military establishment, including 
universal training and the maintenance of the regular army, 
will be about $500,000,000 per annum. We were in the war 
about 19 months at a cost to the United States of 33 bil- 
lions. This country paid for its utter unpreparedness at 
the approximate rate of $1,700,000,000 a month during the 
continuation of the war. It would take over 200 years to 
expend for the universal training of our youth the total 
amount this 19 months of war cost us. Surely it would 
be criminal folly to disregard the lessons of the war. 

While these figures of the best informed of our 
national legislators may be subject to some revision, 
they may properly be regarded as certainly the most 
accurate that have yet been presented by either the 
advocates or opponents of universal training. How- 

[148] 




A class in radio-telegraphy. Wireless telegraphy is now employed 
commercially on a huge scale, and there is a constant demand for 
thoroughly trained operators. 



[149] 



ever, some of the latter regard these figures as too low. 
Senator Wadsworth gives the eventual cost of train- 
ing one man as $170. Let us assume, however, that 
$300 or practically double Mr. Wadsworth 's estimate 
would be required, and that an average of 600,000 
men would be trained each year. Then the additional 
cost of universal training, over and above the cost of 
other items of our military establishment (which 
cannot in any case be avoided) would be 180 million 
dollars per annum, certainly a very moderate price 
to pay for the many advantages this training would 
confer on the nation. 

The cost of common school education in the United 
States in recent years has been estimated at about 
$700,000,000 per annum. And this, be it remarked, 
was with starvation wages for our teachers. The 
latter are now leaving the service by thousands, and 
it is evident that the expenditures for education must 
be considerably increased in the very near future, or 
the entire system will collapse. Yet even should it 
be necessary to expend 2 billions of dollars per annum 
the American people will never consent to the aban- 
donment of our system of public education, as they 
well know this would mean the ruin of our country. 

As throwing some light on the estimated costs of 
universal training the following cost data of public 
school education for the year 1915 are of interest. 
The average number of days of school was 160 per 
annum, which is approximately the length of the 

[ 150 ] 



period of universal training according to pending 
legislation. The average cost per pupil per year was 
$42 or about one-quarter the lowest estimate for 
universal training (by Senator Wadsworth) . This 
figure does not, of course, include board and lodging 
of students, but it does include many overhead ex- 
penses which, in the case of universal training, would 
be borne by our regular military establishment; and 
would not be directly chargeable to the training, nor 
evaded should there be no such training. The cost of 
an army ration (one day) served to each man is at 
present about 60 cents. During a four months' period 
this would amount to about $75, for each man in 
training. Board and lodging, two of the largest items 
of expense, would not be much if any in excess of 
$100 per man for the entire period of training. 

If public school education is worth one billion 
dollars a year to the nation, and there is no question 
that it is, is universal training with its manifold and 
manifest advantages, worth an additional 150 millions 
or even 300 millions ? Would it be a good investment 
then, to add 15 to 30 per cent to the cost of public 
education if that would double the advantages 
thereof? And what of the additional value of na- 
tional security against aggression? 

Universal training would effect many economies, 
any one of which alone would justify its cost. 
Amongst these the more important are : 

1. National insurance against war. The interest 

[ 151 ] 



on the expenditures of the United States in the late 
war would far more than pay for universal training. 

2. Industrial value of better national health. Pre- 
ventable sickness costs us a billion dollars a year. 

3. Longer average span of life. A single year 
added to the life of the individual would far more 
than pay the cost of his training. 

4. More honest and efficient work. A business man 
of Chicago says that indifferent and inaccurate work 
costs that city alone a million dollars a day, more 
than the total cost of universal training. 

5. Great saving in the outlay for police force, 
courts, jails, penitentiaries, poor-houses, hospitals, 
insane asylums, and the like. 

The value of these may be directly measured in 
dollars and cents. But there are other and perhaps 
still greater benefits not so easily measured in this 
way. They include: 

6. A higher standard of citizenship. 

7. Affording congenial occupation and opportunity 
for growth and expansion to the individual. 

8. The blessings of good health and longer life, for 
the individual. 

9. Insurance against anarchy and internal dis- 
orders. 

The estimated pre-war wealth of the United States 
was 220 billions of dollars, equal to the combined 
wealth of Great Britain, Germany, and France. 
Truly are we the colossus amongst nations so far as 
wealth is concerned. We may be also, if we wish, the 
colossus of strength, and secure in the enjoyment of 

[152] 



our wealth and the happiness that it affords, or should 
afford us. During the war we expended for war 
purposes over 22 billions of dollars, or ten per cent 
of our total wealth, not to mention 10 billions in loans 
to our Allies, which may never be repaid. Had we 
been defeated Germany would have exacted tribute 
from this enormous wealth to the limit of her de- 
sires — which are almost unlimited. Assuming that, 
as stated by Senator Wadsworth, the total cost of an 
adequate military policy, which would insure our 
continued inviolability (even without command of 
the sea), would be $600,000,000 per annum, this 
amounts to a little over a quarter of one per cent per 
annum on our pre-war wealth. Assuming the addi- 
tional cost of universal training at $180,000,000 (in- 
cluded, however, in the $600,000,000) this amounts 
to less than one-twelfth of one per cent per annum 
on the pre-war wealth. Is this a large insurance 
premium to pay for the protection of this vast, un- 
exampled wealth? Is it a heavy tax on the comfort, 
happiness, peace of mind and national security of 
115,000,000 of people, which an adequate military 
policy would insure ? 

The direct cost of the late war to the United States 
was, as stated by Mr. Kahn, nearly 3^ billions of dol- 
lars. This sum would pay for the maintenance of 
such a military policy as proposed by the Senate 
Committee on Military Affairs for over 50 years, or 
for Universal Training alone for about 200 years. 

[153] 



The interest on this vast expenditure at a rate of a 
little more than one-half per cent per annum would 
pay for universal training. Thus in the recent Avar, 
although we did not enter until late in the conflict, 
and were engaged in only two exclusively American 
operations covering a period of but two months, we 
expended a sum equal to 15 per cent of all the ac- 
cumulated wealth of the nation. In the world at 
large close to one-half the accumulated wealth was 
consumed or destroyed in the catastrophe. In the 
next great war in which we may be involved, defeat 
and indemnity, following a long and expensive con- 
flict, would probably mean the loss of fully half our 
wealth, including in all likelihood a large part of 
our territory. Is it worth while to insure ourselves 
against such a disaster? An effective military policy 
is the only known form of insurance that can be ab- 
solutely relied upon. 

The most serious objection now urged against uni- 
versal training is its cost. The authors have endeav- 
ored to point out the many ways in which such train- 
ing would repay and more than repay its cost. The 
American people are to-day fully alive to the need of 
a better educational system for our youth, a better 
Americanism, and a rational military policy as an in- 
surance of our national independence. And they 
can certainly afford to pay for that which they so 
vitally need. There is grave danger, amounting to 
a practical certainty, that if the enactment of the 

[ 154] 



necessary measures be now postponed on the ground 
of cost they will never subsequently be enacted until 
another great and probably disastrous war repeats the 
lessons of the late conflict in more convincing lan- 
guage. Should Congress regard the postponement of 
this essential legislation as necessary on the ground 
of cost, the chance will be lost and the American peo- 
ple would be most unfortunate. Therefore let us at 
least recognize the need and establish our policy by 
law. The actual inauguration of any portion of the 
policy might be delayed until the national treasury 
had recovered from its present temporary depression. 

With reference to the desirability of avoiding war 
it is well that we should remember that war costs the 
United States more than it costs any other nation. 
In less than two years of the World War we expended 
almost as much as did France in more than four 
years. In the last year of our participation our rate 
of expenditure was equal to that of France and Great 
Britain, or of Germany and Austria combined. And 
during our short participation in this w T ar our govern- 
ment spent more than it had spent in all the previous 
years of its existence. It is accordingly a greater 
financial economy for us than for any other nation to 
provide adequate insurance against war, especially as 
we may be certain that the next great war will be 
much more expensive than was the last. 

But after all is it money, wealth, alone that we 
think of or care for? What about the honor of the 

[155] 



nation which a ruthless foreign foe would trample in 
the mud? What about the lives of hundred of thous- 
ands, perhaps millions of our boys, our strongest, 
bravest and best, which would be sacrificed to the 
Moloch of indifference and neglect, just as they have 
been sacrificed in every previous war in which we 
have engaged? Says the Chicago Tribune: 

Every dollar Congress pretends to save by the sacrifice 
of the National Defense will be paid for in the blood of 
Americans, innocent victims of the blind folly of their 
representatives. . . . Congress talks economy when 
the honor and safety of the nation are at stake, when the 
lives of the boys who in the next war go forth to defend 
the country, are at stake. . . . 

Says General Emory Upton: 

Battles are not lost in the field alone. They may be lost 
beneath the dome of the Capitol. 

The Urgent Need of Prompt Action in Establishing 
a Military Policy 

The bill hereinbefore referred to, and which is 
now before Congress (at date of this writing), is the 
result of long study and deep research, by our best 
qualified national legislators. They have considered 
all proposals and have sought and obtained the best 
advice of all the best informed and most broad- 
minded men, both civilian and military, in the land. 
The result of their study, embodied in this bill, has 
been characterized as: "the most statesmanlike piece 
of military legislation that has ever been presented to 

[156] 



Congress. " It is indeed such. It ' is thoroughly 
democratic, perfectly in harmony with our national 
ideals and traditions. It is the most effective, and at 
the same time the most economical scheme of national 
defense that has been devised. And in addition to in- 
suring our national inviolability and the preservation 
of our wealth and civilization for our own benefit, as 
well as that of the world at large, it would confer 
upon us all the many blessings that result from better 
education, better health, higher industrial efficiency, 
higher personal and national character, better citi- 
zenship, better AMERICANISM. 

The question before the nation, embodied in this 
bill, is one of paramount, vital importance, one which 
should be entirely divorced from partisan politics. 
It is a simple question of whether we shall now estab- 
lish a continuous state of preparedness against any 
national emergency, guaranteed by a trained and 
organized citizen army, or whether we shall continue 
indefinitely in the state of unprepareclness in which 
we found ourselves at the outbreak of the late war, 
the problem unsolved, the defense of the country left 
to chance. This is the fundamental question, inde- 
pendent of all minor details of policy or organization. 
It is the most important issue ever presented to the 
American people. Shall we meet the issue fairly, 
squarely and promptly, or shall we evade it? 

One of the favorite arguments of those who oppose 
universal training is that no such training is needed, 

[157] 



because the men who fought in the late war will be 
again available for the defense of the country in case 
of need. Concerning this a veteran of the "World 
War remarks: 

I can find no words to express my contempt for this 
selfish and cowardly argument. Is it fair that the veterans 
of this war, who shed their blood and risked their lives in 
defense of the country, should be again called upon to bear 
the burden in a future war years hence? 

But whether or not it be fair, it is certain that the 
veterans of the late war will not be the ones who will 
fill the ranks of the armed forces in a future war a 
decade or two decades hence. Statistics prove that 
wars are fought by the very young men of a nation. 
In our own Civil War the great majority of the rank 
and file in both armies were not over 26 years of age. 

The argument is a futile one, and if it serves at 
this time to prevent the nation from adopting a 
rational policy of national defense, our historic 
apathy may be counted upon to defeat such measures 
in the future, when the lessons of the late war are less 
vivid before our eyes. 

The enactment of any legislation as to a military 
policy which does not include universal training, the 
most vitally essential feature of such a policy, will 
mean an indefinite postponement of preparedness, a 
falling back into our historic apathy and indifference, 
the fool's paradise of the pacifist. 

The passage of such a bill as this ten years ago 

[158] 



would have made the United States so powerful a 
force in the affairs of the world that the mere prob- 
ability of our entrance into the World War would 
have served to avert that war. The passage now of 
this bill will render the prestige, the security, the 
independence of our country inviolate for all time. 

Should this bill become law the American flag and 
every citizen under that flag will be respected 
throughout the world. Those who might wish to 
trample upon the rights of our citizens in foreign 
lands will hear the solemn voice of warning, hear 
and stay their hands: "Take heed what thou doest, 
for this man is an AMERICAN! " 

Functions of the Regular Army 

In the rapid march of modern progress in transpor- 
tation and communication, time and space in a mili- 
tary sense have been all but annihilated. Scant op- 
portunity remains for the creation of a nation's de- 
fenses after diplomatic processes have failed to achieve 
results. More than ever before in history national 
preparedness is an issue and it cannot be ignored. 
The question now is not one of principle but one of 
means and methods. The great conflict has brought 
home to all the fact that a professional army, how- 
ever well trained, however well equipped and however 
numerous, short of the total national resources, can- 
not meet the ultimate demands of modern warfare. 

[159] 



Nations at war must be in fact nations in arms and 
their war power can be nothing less than their total 
strength in men, in material and in an invincible will 
to win — "men, munitions and morale." Obviously, 
however, no nation can afford to keep its total man- 
power under arms at all times, nor, on the other hand, 
can any nation afford to dispense entirely with some 
force which shall serve to hold the outer lines in the 
first assault and to cover the mobilization of its re- 
serves. Some organization must be maintained 
through which the nation may generate its full fight- 
ing resources. 

Universal training, by providing a large number of 
men able and willing to defend the country in case 
of need, relieves the nation of the burden of the main- 
tenance of a large standing army in time of peace. 
There are, however, certain duties and contingencies 
which require the constant maintenance of an armed 
force, a regular army, whose strength in time of peace 
should be held to the minimum necessary for the per- 
formance of these duties. Such duties are : 

1. Garrisoning our seacoast defenses and our out- 
lying possessions. 

2. Providing a small regular force to cope with 
wars or other emergencies, not of sufficient import- 
ance to justify calling out the reserves. 

3. Providing a small organized force to be always 
ready to meet the first shock of an invasion. 

4. Providing a nucleus and rallying point for the 
armed forces of the nation in case of a great war. 

[ 160 ] 




161 ] 



5. Furnishing competent instructors for the uni- 
versal training camps and conducting the training 1 
at such camps, at colleges and officers' training camps. 

6. Providing a corps of highly trained officers for 
higher command and staff duty. 

7. Furnishing officers and men for the highly tech- 
nical arms and services, for which extended special 
training is necessary. 

8. Keeping alive the military spirit, keeping up-to- 
date in the study and development of the art of war 
and abreast of progress in military affairs. 

Every man who understands anything of the na- 
ture of the gigantic and highly complex struggle from 
which we have just emerged, realizes that modern war 
is a very intricate and technical affair. It is the 
game of the expert and the professional. . As the 
numbers engaged increase and the engines of war 
become more numerous as well as more complicated 
and various, expert manipulation and direction are s 
more and more required. To entrust the direction of 
the vast machinery of war to the novice or amateur 
is to invite destruction. In peace the mistakes of 
the leader are paid for in lost profits, in war they are 
paid for in the blood of patriots and the humiliation 
and downfall of nations. We cannot afford mistakes 
that entail such consequences. We cannot entrust the 
direction of the war machine except to those who have 
been thoroughly trained for this gravest and heaviest 
of human responsibilities. 

War to-day utilizes all the most complex, delicate 

[ 162 ] 



scientific devices and methods known to man, and 
these agencies must be applied in the most effective 
manner known to the solutions of the problems of 
tactics and strategy. Military commanders must not 
only be thoroughly familiar with military princi- 
ples and examples, and the best methods of apply- 
ing them to the situations that arise, but they must 
be also familiar with the complex mechanisms and 
agencies of science which are at their disposal, and 
the methods in which they may be utilized to best 
advantage in the furtherance of military aims. They 
must understand, moreover, how to marshal back 
of the army, all the moral, physical and material re- 
sources of the nation. If our commanders are not 
thus equipped our armies meet defeat and disaster. 
The knowledge required of the commander in mod- 
ern war is stupendous. It can be acquired and main- 
tained only by continual study and effort. To keep 
abreast of the developments of modern war and the 
advances in science which affect its conduct, require 
constant application. 

We cannot be prepared to meet the emergencies of 
war unless we have trained minds constantly study- 
ing its problems and possibilities. If we lag behind 
the world in these things we invite national disaster 
and humiliation. 

A far-sighted French general, addressing the stu- 
dents at the French War College in 1895 said: 

There will be a greater difference between the next war 
[ 163 ] 



and the war of 1870 than there was between the war of 
1870 and the wars of the First Empire. Universal train- 
ing, smokeless powder, rapid-firing weapons and efficient 
transportation will bring about changes which we little 
suspect. The beginning of that war will bring surprises 
for every one. The victors will be those who can most 
quickly comprehend. 

This was a man of clear vision, and like clarity of 
vision should enable us to perceive, at least in out- 
line, the changes that will be ushered in by the next 
great war. 

The possibilities of aviation in warfare were hardly 
more than dimly perceived in the late conflict. Since 
the war an aeroplane has flown across the Atlantic 
Ocean in less than 24 hours. An authority on avia- 
tion has said that in a few years transatlantic travel 
by aeroplane will be as common as automobile travel 
between New York and Albany is to-day. In one 
great battle we now expend more ammunition than 
was formerly employed in the entire course of a war. 
Aeroplanes, poison gas and smoke, quick-firing weap- 
ons of all kinds,* expending undreamed of quantities 
of ammunition, tanks, submarine and subterranean 
warfare, transportation by water, rail and road, per- 
mitting vast and rapid concentrations of men and 
material, rapid methods of construction, espionage 
and propaganda, intensive methods of training, taxes, 
loans and other financial operations, mobilization of 
material resources, the control of civil populations — 
all of these and many other things were employed in 

[ 164 ] 



the late war on a scale never before conceived or even 
guessed at. Yet we by no means attained the ulti- 
mate. The next great war will see still greater de- 
velopments of these things, and witness the introduc- 
tion and development of new machines and methods 
now unknown. We must have experts constantly 
studying the game of war and the methods of defense 
against possible invaders whose experts are likewise 
studying it, just as in our great laboratories for medi- 
cal research we have experts constantly studying and 
developing ways and means of protecting us against 
the diseases which threaten health and life. 

This research, study and development can be car- 
ried on only by experts who devote their entire at- 
tention to such matters; that is, only by a regular 
army. It is the function of this army to keep us 
up-to-date in military matters, to form the nucleus 
of thoroughly trained men around which the forces 
of the nation can rally in time of national emergency. 
It is the duty of the regular army to keep the powder 
dry, the musket clean and oiled, against the time 
when the savages swoop down upon us. 

In addition to these essentials the regular army 
performs in time of peace a large number of useful 
duties of a miscellaneous nature, and is by no means 
maintained in constant idleness, as some people have 
supposed. The army was the principal instrumental- 
ity in the creation and maintenance of the lines of 
communication which made possible the development 

[165] 



of the great west. To this day it has a strong hold 
upon the affections of the citizens in that portion of 
the country. Amongst the other civil achievements 
of the army and navy in the past may be mentioned : 
maintaining order and security in many American 
cities during times of fire or flood or other emergen- 
cies with which the civil authorities were unable to 
cope, relieving distress of the citizens on such occa- 
sions, inauguration of civil government in new pos- 
sessions, such as Cuba and the Philippine Islands, 
construction of the Panama Canal, construction of 
transcontinental railways, and railways in outlying 
possessions, construction of all harbors and improve- 
ment of all rivers and construction of canals in the 
interests of navigation, maintenance and construction 
of lighthouses and all other aids to navigation, regu- 
lation of navigation on the seas, lakes and rivers, con- 
struction of many public buildings and monuments, 
abatement of floods on the Mississippi and other rivers 
and relief of flood sufferers, inauguration of the Geo- 
logical, Geodetic, Hydrographic and Public Land 
Surveys of the United States, valuable contributions 
to medical and sanitary science, including discovery 
of the causes and methods of abating such diseases 
as yellow fever, typhoid fever, dysentery, etc., similar 
valuable contributions to the sciences of engineering, 
chemistry, bacteriology, astronomy, etc., discovery of 
the north pole. 

Our regular army and navy are not alone a quar- 

[ 166 ] 



antine against the pestilence of war. They are a 
highly trained and devoted force, ready and able to 
perform any kind of public service or meet any 
emergency of peace. Many times and oft in our his- 
tory the nation and the communities thereof in the 
throes of internal disasters, have sought the succor 
of our trained army as the only power able to save 
their lives and possessions, and never has the army 
been found unprepared or unable to afford the relief 
asked for. The army and navy are our chief guarantee 
for the maintenance of law, order and public safety 
in the emergencies of peace as well as those of war. 

Length of the Period of Training 

There has been much discussion as to the proper 
length of the period of training. Naturally, it is de- 
sirable that this period should be as short as pos- 
sible, but it must be sufficient to accomplish the pur- 
poses in view and justify the expenditure and the in- 
terference with civil life. These purposes should be 
clearly understood. The rudiments of military train- 
ing must be given and the spirit of discipline thor- 
oughly inculcated. In addition to this there must be 
sufficient physical training to give all the students 
a good sound physique and good "set-up." Schol- 
astic instruction will be required in many cases and 
vocational training in all. 

The different courses will, of course, be carried on 

[ 167] 



simultaneously, but to accomplish such ambitious re- 
sults as these (and we are content with no less) will 
require time. Discipline in particular requires time, 
because it must be gradually absorbed by the student 
from the atmosphere in which he finds himself, and 
is less susceptible of "intensive application" than 
any other form of training. Discipline is not a knowl- 
edge of how to do certain things, but a spirit of loy- 
alty and dependability that is a result of the student's 
whole training and environment/ The military train- 
ing must be sufficient to insure discipline and establish 
a feeling of self-reliance, to teach the students how 
to care for themselves in the field, and to enable them 
to efficiently handle the weapons of modern combat. 
The vocational training should be sufficient to enable 
the students to fill positions as skilled artisans in 
civil life. 

It is the spirit of discipline, however, which the 
average American will be longest in acquiring; at 
least until the system of universal training shall 
have been in operation long enough to influence the 
entire nation and affect the rearing of children. The 
necessity for inculcating the spirit of discipline, loy- 
alty and patriotism, which is the most important 
item of the training, is accordingly the proper meas- 
ure of the length of the period of instruction. The 
other items can be taught within the same period. 

In Germany, prior to the late war, the period of 
training was two years. In France it was three 

[168] 




[ 169 ] 



years, but this was due chiefly to a desire to maintain 
as large a standing army as Germany with a smaller 
population. In Switzerland the period of training 
varies from two to four months (for different arms 
of the service) with an additional period of two 
weeks in each .of several following years. In the 
Swiss system vocational training is not included, nor 
indeed anything not strictly necessary from a purely 
military point of view. For the Swiss system, like 
the German and French, is frankly military in its 
aim, and its other advantages, though great, are only 
incidental. Nevertheless, the length of the period 
has been several times increased, and is still regarded 
as too short to inculcate a proper spirit of discipline. 
The Swiss, therefore, as a result of their experience, 
regard four months as too short a period, even when 
vocational training is not included. 

Our own belief, as a result of our experiences in 
the late war, is that a period of three or even two 
years of continuous training is more than is neces- 
sary to obtain the results desired, both from the 
military and civil points of view. If vocational train- 
ing is to be included in the curriculum a very short 
period will of course not suffice. And it is certainly 
most desirable that it be included, as it would not 
greatly increase the cost and would be of immense 
value to the individual and to the nation. During 
the late war we sent into action troops who had re- 
ceived less than six months' training, and because 

[KOI 



these troops in many instances acquitted themselves 
with credit it may have been believed that their train- 
ing was all that it should have been. But it must be 
remembered that they were opposed to an army wear- 
ied with four years of continuous war, insufficiently 
supplied, and with defeat and ruin staring it in the 
face. Certainly these men were not properly trained, 
either to perform their full duties or to survive the 
ordeals of campaign and battle. This is a point that 
should not be overlooked. The untrained man has not 
a. fair chance to survive, either on the field of battle 
when pitted against a trained foe, or in camp, bivouac 
or on the march, where he meets other enemies not 
less dangerous (as experience proves) in the form of 
exposure and disease. We must give our boys a 
" fighting chance" by teaching them how to meet 
their enemies on equal terms and how to conserve 
their health and vigor amidst the exposure and 
dangers incident to life in the field. It is not fair to 
the nation to entrust the defense of its liberties to 
imperfectly trained men, and it is not fair to the men 
themselves. Under the stress of actual war both the 
men and the officers over them took the training more 
seriously than could ordinarily be expected in time 
of peace. On the other hand, peace will enable us 
eventually to provide better facilities for training 
than we had at the outbreak of this war. 

The length of the period of training, according to 
several proposals, varies from 3 to 18 months. Dur- 

[171] 



ing a three months period there would be little op- 
portunity for anything more than physical and mili- 
tary training. The students would have to be carried 
so rapidly through a purely military course that we 
would miss the opportunity to realize to the fullest 
the vast possibilities of universal training as a school 
of good citizenship. And a thorough discipline, which 
is of vital importance from both a civil and military 
point of view, could not be inculcated. 

Whatever period is adopted it must be continuous. 
Continuity of training is even more important than 
the length of the period. Disciplinary instruction ab- 
solutely demands continuous control of the students. 
If they are constantly escaping from the atmosphere 
of discipline they can never become impregnated with 
it. A month a year for six successive years would 
not produce results comparable with four months con- 
tinuously in one year. The benefits derived during 
one isolated period would largely disappear before 
the next period. Not only the disciplinary instruc- 
tion, but all items of training would suffer. No edu- 
cational plan follows such a scheme of interrupted 
instruction except as a matter of sheer necessity. 
Lack of continuity of training has been one of the 
greatest handicaps under which the National Guard 
has labored. 

Moreover, lack of continuity would cause much 
waste of time and confusion, would be a most unwar- 
ranted interference with the civil careers of the 

[172] 



young men, and would greatly increase the cost of 
training. Considerable expense in time and money is 
involved in assembling the students from their homes 
and returning them thereto. If there be two periods 
of instruction instead of one, this cost is almost 
doubled. At the beginning of each period it would 
be necessary to re-equip the students to a great ex- 
tent. If all students were assembled at the same time 
each year for a short course, the large and expensive 
plant at the camps and all the instructors would be 
idle most of the time. If they were assembled at 
different periods this would be most embarrassing to 
their civil pursuits, and the variation in season would 
greatly interfere with instruction, especially the all- 
important outdoor instruction. In the winter in the 
north outdoor work must be greatly curtailed, but if 
the winter is part of a longer season it may advan- 
tageously be used for indoor and vocational instruc- 
tion. 

At the beginning of each period it would be neces- 
sary to give the students a "review" of their previous 
training, which would not be fresh in their minds 
after a year's absence. This would consume valuable 
time. But probably the greatest objection to non- 
continuous instruction would be the repeated inter- 
ruptions at various seasons of the civil careers of the 
students, which would be most trying to them and to 
their employers. Undoubtedly, they will all prefer 
to take the necessary training in one "dose" and 

I 173 ] 



have it over with, being thereafter free to follow 
their civil pursuits without interruption. Discon- 
tinuous training would appear to be disadvantageous 
in every way. • 

There is probably no American army or navy 
officer who believes that three months is a sufficient 
period, even if continuous, in which to accomplish 
the results desired. Some have recommended such 
a period in the belief that the American people would 
not consent to a longer one, and on the principle 
that "half a loaf is better than no bread. " Six 
months is probably the minimum that will produce 
even fairly satisfactory results, and many believe 
that more time is necessary. Six months is, of course, 
a very convenient period, as it would always begin 
and end at the same time, and could utilize the most 
favorable season of the year, which would be ad- 
vantageous from every point of view. There would 
be the minimum of lost time from cold or inclement 
weather, and opportunity for a recess between periods 
for leaves of absence to instructors, preparation for 
the next course, etc. The proper length of the period 
probably remains to be determined by experience. 
It will undoubtedly be wise to start with a period of 
moderate length. After a short demonstration of the 
benefits of the system it will unquestionably become 
a popular institution, and the nation as a whole will 
be in a position to judge whether it will be advan- 
tageous to extend the period and increase the amount 

[174] 



of vocational training. Such judgment will be sound. 

It would of course be quite possible to turn out 
well-drilled infantry in a period of three months, or 
even less, if time were devoted exclusively to infantry 
drill. But there are many important things to be 
taught besides drill. A well drilled organization is 
not necessarily well disciplined or thoroughly in- 
structed in other respects. This is a school for the 
production of good citizens and thorough soldiers, not 
theatrical troupes, trained only to perform certain 
steps with precision. 

The habit of doing things right is the foundation 
of success in civil life and of victory in war. This 
habit is formed by repeatedly doing things right, 
which in the chief reason for the insistence on accu- 
rate and snappy drill in the army. This is discipline, 
and it cannot be acquired in a day or a month. It 
is the most important item of the training, and if it 
be not acquired our time is largely wasted. The time 
necessary to acquire this discipline is accordingly 
the measure of the proper length of the period of 
universal training. Many a man has made a success 
in life without educational advantages, without good 
health, without high intelligence. But no man ever 
yet succeeded who had not formed the habit of doing 
things right. 

These considerations indicate that, to begin with, 
the period should be six months of continuous train- 
ing. 

[175] 



The Best Age for Training 

The consensus of opinion of educators and psy- 
chologists is that the best time for training is in the 
nineteenth year of age, or within one year of that age. 
It might be supposed that the principles and lessons 
it is desired co impress could be taught at an earlier 
age and through the medium of the public schools. 
There are undoubtedly many things that we grasp 
more easily in childhood or early youth than later. 
But there are other things that require a certain de- 
gree of maturity of mind and thought. "A boy's 
will is as the wind's will" — fitful and changing. The 
more serious impressions of patriotism, democracy, 
fairness to fellow-man, the "square deal," conscience 
in our work, etc., are more likely to endure if formed, 
or at least confirmed, at the period of budding man- 
hood when youth stands upon the threshold of life, 
laying its course and forming its creed. 

It is desirable, of course, that the period should 
come as early as practicable in life, in order to early 
form right habits, and also to interfere as little as 
possible with adult life. Children are far more im- 
pressionable than those of mature age, but on the 
other hand impressions acquired too early are not en- 
during. Also the training to be administered is 
admittedly strenuous, and a fair degree of physical 
maturity is desirable. There is a golden mean be- 
tween extreme youth, when the child is physically 
insufficiently developed and does not register perma- 

[ 176] 




[177] 



nent impressions, and full manhood when he has be- 
come less impressionable and less pliable and learns 
less readily. This golden mean is found at the 
threshold between childhood and manhood, or at 
from 18 to 20 years of age. 

The Need for Federal Control 

So far-reaching a system of education as universal 
training is possible only under Federal control. The 
federal or national government is the most powerful 
agency at our command and only through its instru- 
mentality can a uniformly high standard of instruc- 
tion be attained. One of the greatest obstacles we 
have encountered in our efforts to improve our sys- 
tem of education for children is the fact that each 
state in the Union must be dealt with independently. 
Each is a law unto itself in these matters, the federal 
government having never undertaken the control of 
primary education. We have forty-eight separate 
sovereignties to deal with, and however much we may 
improve the educational system of Massachusetts, for 
instance, this is of small benefit to Texas, for the force 
of example is little felt in such matters. Under fed- 
eral control any improvement that was found de- 
sirable could be made at once effective and uniform 
throughout the system. 

The proper training of youth is the natural function 
of the federal government. The need for federal con- 

[ 178 ] _ 



trol will be painfully apparent to any one who will 
take the trouble, to examine the educational laws of 
the various states, with their lack of any common 
basis or ideal. Educational laws in some states are 
very good; in others they are exceedingly bad. In 
none of the states are these laws all that they should 
be, and in only a very few are the existing laws, such 
as they are, thoroughly enforced. There would be 
also financial difficulties in any system under local 
control. The wealth of the nation as a whole is ample 
to support the proposed program, especially as a 
single system with one head would be far less ex- 
pensive than forty-eight separate systems. But the 
wealth of many communities would not be sufficient, 
and always would these be the communities most in 
need of education. Thus those most needing these 
benefits would be the ones to receive the least. 

To induce forty-eight separate states to voluntarily 
and independently adopt a single uniform system 
would be an impossible task, or one at least that it 
would take years to accomplish. And even if the 
forty-eight states were all induced to undertake the 
project, each would enact its own laws and enforce, 
or generally fail to enforce them in its own way. In 
some states the results would be fairh good, in others 
almost nil. In no case would they be such as the 
federal government could obtain. 

The Swiss system of training was originally admin- 
istered by each canton, but it was found that federal 

[ 179] 



control was absolutely necessary for adequate results. 

The average educational institution develops and 
improves chiefly by its own narrow experiences. In 
a system of universal training under government con- 
trol the combined experiences of the teachers of mil- 
lions would be of far more value for improvement 
than the experiences of any one institution or even 
any group of institutions. 

Universal training would create a common stand- 
ard for all pupils from all states, thus avoiding the 
unsatisfactory effects of the many vague and poorly 
enforced state laws from which our educational system 
now suffers. Furthermore, it would have a direct and 
powerful influence upon the state institutions, tend- 
ing to standardize their methods and raise them to a 
higher plane of efficiency. Uniform public education 
is much to be desired, both in the schools and in the 
training camps. It would be a powerful agency in 
giving our citizens a common point of view. 

Amongst the features in which universal training 
would be more effective than state training are: 

1. The uniformity of its application. There would 
be no evasions, and no exemptions except for good and 
cogent reasons. 

2. The actual amount of training given. Almost 
all the students would take the full course and the 
minimum would be the average. This is one of the 
chief weaknesses of the state system, where children 
frequently manage to evade the full course prescribed 
by law. 

£180] 



3. The uniform and high standard of excellence. 
Every student would receive the best instruction by 
the best of well paid and thoroughly competent teach- 
ers. The federal government can provide facilities 
for training beyond the power of any of the states. 

Who Favor Universal Training 

In considering the advisability of engaging in a 
business enterprise we usually ask counsel of those 
among our friends in whose judgment we have confi- 
dence, because of their experience or study, their in- 
telligence or general information. 

To give a list of all the prominent men and civic 
bodies who have declared in favor of universal train- 
ing in some form, would greatly increase the size 
of this volume. Suffice it to say that the great ma- 
jority of all our public men and educational au- 
thorities who have expressed themselves on the sub- 
ject have heartily endorsed such training. And this 
includes a number who are, or have been, classed as 
"anti-militarists," even as "pacifists." The news- 
papers of every section of the country favor it, and 
many civic bodies have endorsed, the proposal. 

Many of the leading thinkers of our country have 
for several years been considering the question of uni- 
versal training, and many prominent men in all walks 
of life have become convinced that it is essential to 
the future welfare and safety of the country. In- 
deed, many of these public spirited men are devoting 

[181] 



a large part of their time to working in its behalf. 
Before the committees of Congress which are now 
considering the question of a permanent military pol- 
icy for the United States a great many prominent 
men, both civil and military, have declared in favor 
of such a training. 

The foremost educators of the land, presidents and 
professors of prominent colleges and universities, 
have strongly recommended universal training. The 
group of educators selected to operate the University 
of the American Expeditionary Forces at Beaune, 
France, were much impressed with the crying need for 
better education of "our young men. They have pre- 
pared a comprehensive plan for improving the edu : 
cational system of America, which plan includes a 
year's military and vocational training. 

That sterling and uncompromising American, the 
late Theodore Roosevelt, said: 

I advocate universal military training as much because 
of what it will do for this nation in peace as because of 
what it will mean to this nation in war. The man who is 
not willing to fight for his country, and not willing to fit 
himself to fight for it, and the woman who has not raised 
her boy to be a soldier for the right, neither one of them is 
entitled to citizenship in this Republic. 

Recently Bishop Samuel Fallows, of Chicago, stated 
before the Congressional committee that the churches 
of the country had gone on record in favoT of uni- 
versal training, and that the sentiment of the country 
generally was for it. 

[ 182 ] 



Cardinal Gibbons says: 

I am convinced that some military training is essential 
to the welfare and security of the nation. In the recent 
war we had the trained armies of our allies to lean upon 
until our soldiers were prepared for the battlefield. We 
cannot always depend upon such a favorable circum- 
stance. ... It cannot be said that such preparation will 
make for war. I believe that it will make for peace, since 
other nations, knowing our preparedness, will be reluctant 
to draw us into war. And finally, considering the condition 
of unrest in our country to-day, we should be prepared to 
meet any emergency. 

Among all intelligent men who have given their at- 
tention to the subject we find the conviction that uni- 
versal training not only offers the most important 
benefits to our young men, and through them to the 
race, but that it is in fact a necessity to our future 
welfare and safety. 

A large group of representative physicians from all 
sections of the country have recently petitioned Con- 
gress to enact a law providing for Universal Training, 
in the interests of the national health. 

The following will be of special interest to the 
mothers of America. AYhen universal training was 
proposed in Australia the women were in violent op- 
position to it, and all but defeated the measure. 
Within two years after its inauguration they became 
its most ardent supporters, having observed its bene- 
ficial effects upon their sons. Australia, it may be 
remarked, has compulsory universal training, but no 

[ 183 ] 



compulsory universal service. The two are not in- 
separably connected. We may, according to our judg- 
ment, have either without the other, but the success- 
ful prosecution of a great war demands both. 

Samuel Gompers, President of the American Feder- 
ation of Labor, says : 

While unalterably opposed to anything that even smacks 
of militarism, I favor some disciplinary measures for the 
youth of the land. I believe this is essential for the pro- 
motion of true national feeling, for the counteraction of 
destructive propaganda, for the provision of that alertness, 
intelligence and amenability to law which the youth of 
every nation sorely needs. 

The War Department recently conducted a canvass 
amongst several thousand officers discharged from the 
temporary commissions held during the war. Ninety- 
two per cent of these men went on record as favoring 
universal training. These were men of superior in- 
telligence and patriotism, as proven by the fact that 
they had gained commissioned rank. They were tem- 
porary officers having no connection with the army 
prior to the war. They represented no particular 
class of society, locality, religion or calling, but came 
from all walks of life and all professions. They were 
accordingly truly representative of the best class of 
intelligent American citizens, fully qualified by ex- 
perience to judge the benefits of military training. 

[184] 



There could be no stronger endorsement than this. 

Sergeant Alvin C. York, of Tennessee, the greatest 
individual hero of the world war, according to 
Marshal Foch, and who, it will be remembered, was 
at one time a "conscientious objector" to warfare in 
any form, has declared himself in favor of universal 
training. In a recent interview Sergeant York says : 

From my experience in the cantonment and in overseas 
service, I am -convinced that universal training and dis- 
cipline would greatly improve the health of the young men 
of the country. It would make them stronger and better 
men, with a higher respect for law and order, instill patriot- 
ism and Americanize the youth of the land. This is ex- 
ceedingly important. I hope such training will be adopted 
by our country. 

The American Legion, those representative citizens 
of all classes who saw service overseas in the late con- 
flict, who know what war is and who most keenly ap- 
preciate the blessings of peace, are as a body in favor 
of Universal Training, not for war alone, but to in- 
sure a better citizenship, a truer Americanism, and 
the rule of law and order in our land. 

The following is quoted from the resolutions con- 
cerning a military policy, adopted by the Legion. 

1. That a large standing army is uneconomic and 
un-American. National safety and freedom from 
militarism is best assured by a national citizen army 

[185] 



based on the American principle of equality of obli- 
gation and opportunity for all. 

2. We favor a policy of universal military training 
and that the administration of such a policy shall be 
removed from the exclusive control of any exclusively 
military organization or caste. We are strongly op- 
posed to compulsory military service in time of peace. 

4. We have had a bitter experience in the cost of 
unpreparedness for national defense and the lack of 
proper training on the part of officers and men, and 
we realize the necessity of an immediate revision of 
our military system and a thorough house-cleaning 
of the inefficient officers and methods of our entire 
military establishment. 

We favor a national military system based on uni- 
versal military obligation, to include a relatively 
small regular army and a citizen army capable of 
rapid expansion to meet any national emergency, on 
a plan which will provide competitive and progressive 
training for all officers, both of the regular army and 
of the citizen forces. We believe that such a military 
system should be subject to civil authority. 

National Commander Franklin d'Olier, of the 
American Legion, says : 

I think we will be able to agree on some form of legis- 
lation that will be truly democratic, truly American and 
make this country safe for us, our children, and our 
children's children. Every Post in the country will be 
asked to get behind this legislation and get behind it strong. 
We feel that there should be Universal Training for the 
youth of the country. It will serve to make better citizens. 

[186] 



PART III 

UNIVERSAL TRAINING AND NATIONAL 
DEFENSE 



The Need of Preparedness 

IX the preceding 1 pages we have endeavored to point 
out the advantages of and the necessity for uni- 
versal training from a civil point of view, as 
affecting the daily life of the nation and the character 
of our citizenship. The pages which follow bear upon 
the vital relation of universal training to national 
defense and national independence. The authors ex- 
press the hope that their arguments, which are based 
upon the lessons of history and human and interna- 
tional relations, may help to dispel some of the misun- 
derstandings of a project so vitally important to the 
welfare and security of America as to be entitled to 
the hearty support of all patriotic citizens. 

Every attempt on the part of the United States to 
establish a more effective policy of national defense 
and provide for greater national -security, has been 
met by violent opposition on the part of certain 
classes of our people. It is an opposition based upon 
a misunderstanding of the lessons of experience and 
upon a fancied sense of national security due to a 
geographical isolation which has ceased to be a politi- 
cal, industrial, or military isolation. We are the most 

[ 1ST I 



pacifistic nation on earth except China. But China's 
pacifists are passive, whereas ours have been aggres- 
sive to a marked degree. In the late war they made 
strong efforts to block the passage of, the selective 
service act, or draft law, whose failure would have 
meant victory for Germany and the downfall of civ- 
ilization in Europe. And some even w^ent so far as 
to obstruct the operation of the law after its passage. 
Much of this pacifist outcry and activity was, of 
course, German propaganda. But much of it repre- 
sented the honest opinion of earnest, but misguided, 
American citizens. These honest opinions, because 
based on a misunderstanding of fact, are entitled to a 
fair answer. 

Opposition to universal service and to universal 
training on the part of the American people in the 
past has been diie to a number of popular misconcep- 
tions. Some of these are fundamentally wrong and 
always have been. Others were valid once but have 
ceased to be so. These misconceptions are many and 
varied. Some of the most important are : 

1. That there will never be another great war. 

2. That international differences can invariably 
be settled by arbitration, without resort to arms, and 
that the results of arbitration are dependent on com- 
mon sense, justice and mutual good-will, without 
reference to the armaments behind the arbitrators. 

3. That our desire to remain at peace with all the 
world is the only thing necessary to insure that peace. 
That because we do not covet the possessions of any 

[ 188 ] 




Good fellowship of all classes is the essence of democracy. There is 
nothing more refreshing and inspiring than outdoor association with 
congenial mates. Snobbery and unwholesome class distinctions melt 
away in the air of the training camp. 



other nation no other will covet ours. That the Mon- 
roe Doctrine will always be respected out of friend- 
ship to the United States, and needs no armament to 
support it. 

4. That our geographical and commercial isolation 
are such that we cannot possibly have any interest at 
stake in a war between European or Asiatic nations, 
and that we are not concerned in the preservation of 
a world balance of power. 

5. That to justify adequate preparation for defense 
the menace of war must be imminent and definite; 
that the mere possibility of war in the future with 

[189] 



some now unknown enemy does not justify such 
preparation; and that when such war is actually 
upon us is time enough to prepare. 

6. That a defensive war means solely the actual 
repelling of invaders of our own soil and cannot pos- 
sibly involve a sending of American troops overseas 
to fight in foreign lands. That "defensive warfare" 
is essentially different in its nature from "offensive 
warfare" and requires less training and preparation. 

7. That population, wealth and resources, though 
unorganized for defense, are synonymous with mili- 
tary strength, and that patriotism and a willingness 
to defend our rights are a sufficient guarantee of 
national security without the necessity of any prepa- 
ration in time of peace. 

8. That recognition of the duty of every citizen to 
serve the country in case of need does not include 
the necessity of the citizen being prepared to perform 
that duty. That the "compulsory" feature of uni- 
versal training is repugnant to the spirit of a free 
people. 

9. That voluntary service can always be relied upon 
to furnish sufficient force for the prosecution of any 
war. 

10. That preparedness for national defense means 
militarism in the United States and would serve to 
bring on rather than to prevent war. 

11. That any system of universal training w r ould be 
hurtful in withdrawing men from civil pursuits, and 
that such training could not be of any benefit to them 
in their future civil careers. 

12. That "discipline" is a purely military virtue 
which converts men into automatons and destroys 
their initiative, and is therefore useless and even 
harmful as a preparation for any civil pursuit. 

[ 190 ] 



The World War has, fortunately for us, dispelled 
for a time at least some of the fogs of misunderstand- 
ing. Diplomacy was not able to prevent the catas- 
trophe which involved the entire civilized world, most 
of the nations against their wishes. In spite of our 
isolation we found that we could not look with in- 
difference upon what was going on in Europe, nor 
even escape the effects thereof. The war for us was 
a defensive war. We sought no territory nor in- 
demnity. Yet we were obliged to send millions of our 
men across the Atlantic to fight for our rights. In 
spite of our great resources and population our state 
of unpreparedness was such that it was a year after 
our entry into the war before American troops took 
any decisive part in the conflict, and 17 months before 
an American army, commanded by American officers, 
actually engaged in battle. And it should be added 
that this was in spite of the fact that for months 
before we entered the war it was apparent to all 
thinking people that our intervention was highly 
probable, if not certain, and that our industries were 
in an advanced state of preparedness, due to the fact 
that we had for a long timei^een furnishing muni- 
tions to the entente allies. Yet the equipment of our 
own forces was furnished in large measure by our 
allies, including nearly all of our artillery. Had we 
depended upon ourselves alone it would have been 
much longer before we were ready to take part. Had 
we been opposed alone to the full strength of the 

[191] 



Veteran German army, our comparatively small num- 
ber of insufficiently trained troops would have been 
quite unequal to the situation a full year, or even two 
years after "we entered the war, and Germany would 
not have waited on us, she would have struck all the 
quicker and harder. And she would have gone 
through us as easily as she went through Serbia and 
Roumania. These statements are not flattering to our 
national vanity, but they are true. As it was, how- 
ever, we arrived in the nick of time to turn the tide 
of battle and insure a decisive victory for the forces 
of right. But it was not our strength that did it, 
only our strength added to the greater strength of 
our allies. 

Immediately after our entry into the war it became 
again painfully apparent that voluntary service 
would never furnish us with the force we needed to 
take any decisive part in the conflict. A million men 
did not spring to arms over night, and even a million 
would not have been nearly enough. And so, w r isely 
profiting by the experience of our allies and the les- 
sons of all history, we promptly enacted the compul- 
sory service law, or " selective service' ' law, as we 
termed it. The enactment of this law, so bitterly op- 
posed by the Germans and by our short-sighted 
pacifists, saved civilization from being crushed by 
German militarism. 

War is a calamity which all righteous nations 
should do everything in their power to avoid or pre- 

[192] 



vent. Anything that holds out a reasonable promise 
of reducing the frequency of unnecessary wars is 
worth trying, whether it be alliances to preserve the 
balance of power, including a league of nations, pre- 
paredness for defense, or the development by any 
means of a world-wide sentiment in favor of peace. 
But we know that in our present imperfect state wars 
still take place in spite of all our precautions, because 
all nations are not righteous, or at least not invariably 
so. And war is not always unrighteous. War in 
defense of our liberties and ideals, war to uphold 
justice and freedom and overthrow tyranny and op- 
pression, is righteous war and ennobles the nation 
that engages in it. Our own glorious republic had its 
birth in war, and in several subsequent wars we have 
fought to preserve our independence and liberties, 
and not for conquest nor gain. We do not desire a 
peace that involves the sacrifice of our ideals of 
justice, freedom and democracy. 

A nation is justified in making war in defense of 
its rights, and it is even justified in making war in 
defense of the rights of others. The misguided 
pacifist who would prevent the nation from defend- 
ing its liberties against foreign aggression by depriv- 
ing it of the power to do so, is as wicked and even 
more dangerous than the jingo who would force the 
nation into an unwarranted and unrighteous conflict. 
We punish crimes against society, and society could 
not continue to exist were such punishment to be 

[193] 



abolished. Neither can we refuse to take up arms 
in defense of our rights and liberties if we desire to 
continue in the possession of them. 

Progress in all ages has been the result of protest 
and struggle against wrong and cruelty. Our own 
freedom was achieved by war and preserved by war. 
Resistance to tyranny and oppression is the mark of 
a virile nation. Freedom and democracy cannot mate 
with weakness and cowardice. 

Any careful observer of human and earthly affairs 
cannot have failed to observe the delicate balance be- 
tween good and evil that exists in the world. All 
evil is tempered by good and all good by evil. Evil 
results from good deeds at times even as good comes 
from evil. There is evil in the best of us and good 
in the worst of us. The struggle against evil is what 
chiefly develops our characters and makes us men in- 
stead of invertebrates. We are constantly struggling 
against evil influences. He who has never met and 
resisted temptation has missed the greatest influence 
for character development. Evil seems to be a neces- 
sary part of the Creator's scheme of things. He has 
put it here in order that we may, if we wish, become 
strong and loyal and steadfast by constantly strug- 
gling against and overcoming it. Strife is the law of 
life. So fond are we of strife, and so necessary is it 
to our development that even our pleasures and recre- 
ations frequently, perhaps usually, take the form of 
strife, friendly strife if you will, but still a pitting of 

[ 194 ] 



muscle against muscle and mind against mind. What 
is true of individuals is even more true of those col- 
lections of individuals we call nations. Compe- 
tition, conflict of interests and strife between nations 
is as natural as strife between individuals. Strife 
will continue as long as the world because it is 
natural law. 

We cannot legislate war out of existence any more 
than we can legislate individual strife out of exist- 
ence. Before every great war the prediction is made 
that there -will never be another. And after each 
the cry goes up that it will be the last. The hope is 
father to the thought. Xot while man retains his 
virility will strife between men cease. Xot while pa- 
triotism and pride of blood and race are living pas- 
sions and not obsolete words in musty lexicons, will 
nations cease to war in defense of their liberties. 

Before the late war some of the bankers told us 
that no conflict could take place without their con- 
sent. The great war was bearing down upon us even 
as they made this futile declaration. 

Dr. David Starr Jordan, said in 1914: 

What shall we say of the great war in Europe, always 
threatening, alwa} 6 impending, but which never comes? We 
shall say that it never will come. Humanly speaking, it is 
impossible. 

The German Kaiser must have smiled as he read 
this remarkable preachment. 

[ 195 ] 



With reference to the question as to whether or not 
wars are becoming less frequent, less general in their 
scope, less expensive and less deadly as the world 
grows older, the following will be of interest : 

The Historical Register of the United States Army 
lists no less than 105 wars, insurrections, rebellions, 
punitive expeditions, etc., in which the United States 
have engaged. Of these one-third occurred during 
the first half of our history and two-thirds during the 
last half. The magnitude of the conflicts also greatly 
increased, for whereas in the first half we had the 
"Wars of the Revolution and 1812, in the last half we 
have had the Civil War and the World War (the 
Mexican War occurred exactly in the middle of the 
period). The entire expenditures of the United States 
government, from the foundation of the Republic to 
the opening of the World War (1917) were approxi- 
mately 27 billions of dollars. During two years of 
the war alone, we expended (including loans) con- 
siderably more than this vast sum. The rate of ex- 
penditure during the war was over twenty times the 
pre-war rate. And it is not the expenditure during 
the period of actual hostilities that is alone to be reck- 
oned with. Expenses did not cease with the armistice. 
Experience shows that after a great war from one to 
eight years is required to restore equilibrium. For 
example, after the Civil War the expenses of the Fed- 
eral government were, for several years, more than 
three times what they had been prior to the war, 

I 196 ] 



We are now enjoying a similar experience. And the 
rext great war will be more expensive than that 
which has just been concluded, since the cost of war 
is constantly increasing. The wisdom of insuring 
ourselves against such frightful losses must be appar- 
ent to every patriotic and far-sighted citizen. 

In 19 months of the World War we expended near- 
ly 33 billions of dollars (including loans) or about 
$1,700,000 a month. In a war of defense on our 
own soil against a powerful adversary we would 
incur at least equal expense and would suffer in addi- 
tion the destruction of much of our property, which 
even in the event that we were victorious would be 
only partly indemnified, to say nothing of the 
slaughter and starvation of our citizens. Unprepar- 
edness for the Civil War has cost the American na- 
tion, all told, close to eight billions of dollars. 

The cost of all the Avars of the world from 1793 
(French Revolution) to 1860 (67 years) is estimated 
at 9 billions of dollars. The cost from 1861 to 1920 
(60 years) was 200 billions, or more than 20 times 
as much in a less period. 

The World War, as the term implies, involved more 
nations than any previous conflict in history, and was 
participated in by the inhabitants of every continent 
except South America. 

The number of men (soldiers) killed in the World 
War was about 7% millions, or more by far than in 
all previous wars for a hundred years. In addition 

[197] 



to soldiers killed it is estimated that over 9 millions of 
civilians lost their lives as a result of the war, by 
murder, massacre, exposure, starvation and pestilence. 

This alarming increase in the cost, destructiveness 
and epidemic nature of war, is of course chiefly due 
to increase of population and wealth, transportation 
facilities and intercourse between nations. It is ap- 
parently an inevitable result of a rapid growth of 
material civilization, without a corresponding growth 
in moral and spiritual civilization, or fundamental 
change for the better in human nature. 

In the past, wars were much more limited in their 
territorial scope, and much less expensive and deadly 
than in these days. Formerly, because of the isolation, 
of nations from each other, a country Avas not apt to 
be drawn against its will into a conflict between other 
countries. To-day the interests of the nations are 
so interwoven and mutually dependent that any war, 
however small in its beginning, threatens the peace of 
the whole world, and no nation can be sure of avoid- 
ing its effects, or even direct participation. 

In olden days the victor often recouped the costs of 
the Avar at the expense of the vanquished. To-day 
Avar is expensive for both opponents. Although the 
United States Avere victorious in the Avar Avith Ger- 
many Ave will never be directly reimbursed for one 
penny spent in the conflict. 

If it was in the past desirable to avoid war, it is 

[198] 




How much better than loafing on the street corners! It's always fair 
weather when good fellows get together. Music is the most pleasant 
and refining of influences, and a vocation which may be taught at 
the camps. 

far more desirable to do so to-day, when war is so 
much more serious a matter than formerly. 

Mr. Lloyd George recently said: 

What would happen if we had another war baffles imagi- 
nation. Discoveries made almost at the end of the war 
had the}^ been used, would have produced horrors inde- 
scribable. If we are to have a repetition of this, civiliza- 
tion might well be wrecked. 

Lord Robert Cecil says: 

The next war, if it takes place, would be as much more 
[ 199 ] 



horrible than this war, as this has been more horrible than 
any preceding war. 

Shall we utterly disregard such warnings from 
such men ? Shall we continue to run the risk of being 
overwhelmed by the horrors of w r hieh they speak? 
Is it worth while to take the precautions which will 
insure that it shall be the enemy's civilization and 
not ours that shall be wrecked if a conflict is forced 
upon us; or better, to make ourselves so strong that 
none wall dare to join conflict with us? The discov- 
eries to which Mr. Lloyd George refers, the imple- 
ments and engines of w 7 ar, greatly increase man 's 
power of destruction. But after all it is man himself 
who is the destroyer. The engines of w 7 ar threaten 
the destruction of civilization only when they are em- 
ployed on a huge scale by vast numbers of trained 
men. No new engine of war wall ever take the place 
of the fighting soldier, with, his rifle, machine gun and 
rapid-fire cannon. New engines can only add to his 
destructive power. They will be of no avail for our 
protection except in the hands of a great army train- 
ed in their use. Our enemy will have both men and 
machines and we must be equally prepared if our 
safety is to be insured. 

In the presence of these facts can we continue to 
believe that w 7 e have seen our last war, and that the 
peace of the United States w T ill never again be 
threatened? 

[ 200 ] 



To-day is the day of insurance and "safety first." 

We insure our loved ones against want in the event 
of our death, we insure our property against fire and 
theft, Ave insure the trinkets we send by mail or ex- 
press. We have every conceivable precaution to in- 
sure life and property against death, injury or loss. 
We maintain police and fire departments, hospitals, 
asylums and jails, a public health service. We have 
all kinds of laws and regulations to this end. We 
purify our water supply, we supervise the production 
of our food, we inoculate our persons against disease. 
We have block systems on our railroads, life boats on 
our vessels, fire escapes on our buildings. We have 
adequately insured and safeguarded everything ex- 
cept the life of the nation. 

How can we best insure ourselves against the 
frightful disaster of modern war? The answer is 
simple: we must be just, we must be strong, we must 
be ready, and all the world must know that we are so. 

The universal training of our young men is our 
best national insurance against foreign aggression. 
But it is more effective than ordinary insurance, 
which does not prevent disaster, but only repairs its 
consequences to a certain extent. To use a favorite 
commercial term, it is life assurance. It is not the 
fact that we would be able to emerge victorious from 
a defensive war that is alone the measure of the mili- 
tary value of universal training. The fact that we 
are known to be thus prepared to defend ourselves 

[201] 



renders us in great measure secure from aggression. 

Like many other misfortunes, perhaps more than 
any other, Avar brings its compensations. With armed 
strife we have conquered the wilderness and built up 
great nations. With blood and suffering we have pur- 
chased democracy and human freedom. War is 
tragedy and suffering. Yet it is apparent that the 
Creator has used it as an instrument in the progress 
of the race, just as he has made human suffering an 
instrument for the uplift of the individual. War has 
been man's mightiest and most effective weapon in 
his struggle against injustice, tyranny and oppres- 
sion. With Avar he has successively overthrown indi- 
vidual, religious and political slavery. 

The following paragraph is quoted from a French 
author. Some may say that it expresses a "militar- 
istic" attitude of mind. Yet there is much of dignity 
and grandeur in its sentiment. The author Avas con- 
templating a scene where his ancestors had many 
times defended their liberties in armed strife, and 
he ruminates in characteristically French fashion: 

As we contemplate the ruin and tragedy of war a feeling 
of sadness comes over us and we say to ourselves, "What 
is the use?" "What is the use?" a voice from the depths 
of our soul replies; "What is the use of our country? 
What is the use of freedom and independence? What is 
the use of steadfastness, devotion and self-sacrifice ? What is 
the use of patriotism, which alone of human passions is 
worthy to be called holy?" War gave birth to all nations, 
and it is righteous war in defense of freedom that lifts 

[ 202 ] 



them up, re-vivifies and re-glorifies them when they have 
sunk into the degradation of sordid and selfish material in- 
terests. War is struggle against evil. But struggle against 
evil is the law of nature which insures the survival of the 
races, the institutions, the ideals, which are the strongest, 
the best, the noblest, the most worthy to survive. On this 
site, where so many of our ancestors yielded up their blood 
in the defense of their liberties and their homes against 
rapacious foreign aggression, it is not vain regrets that 
are called for, but pride, gratitude and homage to our 
sainted dead, whose bones lie here. They ask not our tears, 
but that we shall prove worthy of the glorious heritage 
their sacrifices have bequeathed us. 

Diplomacy in international relations is not solely, 
nor even chiefly a matter of law, common sense, good- 
will and brotherly love. Its success is largely depend- 
ent upon the strength of the armaments behind it, 
just as the success of a business man is dependent 
upon his credit with his bankers. We accede to de- 
mands when Ave know that those making the demands 
have the power to enforce them, quite as often as 
from pure considerations of right and equity. A 
powerful army and a great fleet are far more potent 
arguments in diplomatic relations than the most sub- 
tle and intelligent discourses of the ablest statesmen. 

It is not our own peace alone, but in great measure 
the peace of the world, which our strength insures. 
For it is the powerful nations that exercise the great- 
est influence, whether for good or for evil. 

Peace will not be furthered by an injudicious and 
premature disarmament of the nations wdiose voices 

[ 203 ] 



are most potent for peace. Let us at least begin by 
disarming those who have proved themselves unfit 
to wield power. When America raises her voicfc in 
protest far more attention will be paid to her when 
it is known she has the power to enforce her just de- 
mands. We can no more do away with war by dis- 
arming the just nations than we can stop crime by 
abolishing the police force. Such ill advised actions 
would be merely invitations to more war and more 
crime. 

A desire to remain at peace with the world is not 
sufficient to insure such peace. We have but lately 
seen ruthless and powerful nations seize the territory 
and murder the inhabitants of unoffending neighbor- 
ing nations without justification or even pretext. 
Human nature does not change over night, nor grow 
sweet and gentle in a clay. Envy and greed are as 
rampant at this instant as they have ever been, if 
not more so. The security of a nation, especially one 
so wealthy as to be the envy of all others, must rest 
on something more solid and dependable than a 
" scrap of paper." There still exist in the world 
powerful nations whom no considerations of a moral 
nature would deter from seizing our wealth and de- 
stroying our liberty and institutions if they were 
able to do so. Being already the possessors of the 
largest share of the world's wealth and resources we 
covet the possessions of no other nation. But we will 
do well to remember that there are others less for- 

[204] 



tunateiy placed than ourselves to whom our great 
wealth and material prosperity are a source of con- 
stant eiwy. 

We do not condemn treaties. They have a moral 
value in proportion to the morality of the states which 
sign them. But they are alone an insufficient guar- 
antee of peace. A treaty is only a promise, and a 
good business man does not rely on promises,. but de- 
mands material security. How much better to have 
the cash rather than the promissory note of one who 
may fall into moral bankruptcy. 

The greatest invitation to aggression is given by 
a nation at once weak and wealthy, as the United 
States busily engaged in accumulating dollars while 
utterly neglecting their defenses, have been in the past 
and will again become if some sound defensive policy 
be not now adopted. ' ' God help us ! ' ' exclaims one 
patriot, "if we should prove as weak as we are 
wealthy. ' ' 

The policy of a nation should determine the ex- 
tent of its armament, by which is meant its state of 
preparation for war. If we do not provide an arma- 
ment sufficient to maintain our national policies 
whatever they may be, we must either abandon or 
curtail our policies or, in the long run, come to grief. 
Our policies include the protection of our citizens in 
all lands, freedom of our commerce on all seas, t\±e 
maintenance of our national independence, and the 
absolute exclusion of all the nations of the world 

[ 205 ] 





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[ 206] 



from all territory in the western hemisphere except 
such as they already possess. This latter policy, com- 
monly known as the Monroe Doctrine, is a responsi- 
bility so vast, and so fraught with danger, that none 
but the most powerful nation can dare assert or pre- 
tend to maintain it. No American is willing to recede 
one step from any of these policies. The necessity 
of being prepared to maintain them against * all the 
world must therefore be apparent to everybody. We 
must either bring our armament abreast of our policy, 
abandon our policy, or invite disaster. Other nations 
have ambitious policies, and when in the natural 
course of events these come in conflict with our rigid 
Monroe Doctrine, either they must yield to diplomatic 
suggestion or else we have war, for the Monroe Doc- 
trine admits of no yielding. 

China has the least aggressive of all national poli- 
cies. Her policy consists solely in a desire to be left 
peacefully in possession of what belongs to her. Yet 
because her armament is not adequate to even this 
modest policy, she has been compelled to sit helplessly 
while other nations have robbed her of her territory 
and exploited her resources. The mutual distrust 
and jealousy of her despoilers has been the sole re- 
straint upon the spoliation that is constantly directed 
against her. If one nation wishes to seize a portion of 
China's territory, there is no question of any protest 
on the part of China, the owner, the question is only 
whether some other nation will object. China, there- 

[207 ] 



fore, has long ceased to be an independent nation, 
and her voice has no weight whatever in the world's 
diplomatic councils. This is because she is utterly 
lacking the spirit of patriotism which impels her citi- 
zens to defend their national rights. And this lack 
of patriotism is due chiefly, probably solely, to lack 
of national education in citizenship, because the 
Chinese are not in other respects an inferior people. 
In many ways they are the equals of any on earth. 
But a people who are not ready and willing to defend 
their rights are not a nation, only an agglomeration 
of individuals. 

The example of China has this lesson for us. A 
desire merely to retain one's possessions, without ag- . 
gression on others, does not justify or permit utter 
lack of armament for defense. A nation possessing 
valuable territory and resources will not be left in 
undisturbed possession thereof unless willing and 
able to defend itself against aggression. In fact the 
more valuable its possessions the more likely it is to 
suffer aggression. Our own policy includes, as we 
have pointed out, far more than the undisturbed 
possession of our own territory. The possession of 
vast wealth without adequate defense is a deliberate 
invitation to aggression. 

The United States has assumed a conspicuous and 
dominant place in the affairs of the world. No nation 
has ever attained or maintained a dominant position 
without the display and frequently the exercise of 

[208 ] 



force. Those who doubt this should consult the his- 
tories of the dominant nations. We deplore the resort 
to force, but we cannot fail to see the necessity there- 
for. That force is still, as always in the world's 
history, the final argument of states as it is of in- 
dividuals, has been all too plainly demonstrated in the 
late war. The race is as warlike to-day as ever in its 
history. 

The just man may and should be armed. And the 
nation which is not willing and able to defend its 
rights will soon find that it has none which others are 
bound to respect. We have only to contemplate the 
pitiful example of our too peaceful neighbor, China. 
And we must resist the efforts of those who, to use 
the words of the late Theodore Roosevelt, "would 
like to Chinafy America." 

The best guarantees of national independence are 
a well trained and well commanded army and navy, 
and a brave and intelligent people resolved to make 
any sacrifice rather than submit to the humiliation 
of a hostile occupation of their soil. We do not mean 
a "standing army," but a nation trained to arms and 
ready to defend its rights. 

As to the protection afforded by "our splendid iso- 
lation," we have seen ourselves drawn across the sea 
to give battle on the fields of Europe in a defensive 
war. We have seen Great Britain, so blissfully se- 
cure in an isolation under the protection of her 

[ 209 ] 



powerful navy, compelled to abandon her isolation 
and put forth all her strength in a struggle on a 
foreign soil in which her very existence as an empire 
was at stake. If our own coasts were secure (which 
they are not) what is to prevent Mexico being used 
as an avenue of advance against us, either w r ith or 
without her consent (which would make little differ- 
ence to a powerful invader) even as Belgium was 
used? Powerful nations on one's land frontiers may 
be a source of danger even as Germany is a danger to 
France, and as France in the past has been to Ger- 
many, Austria, Italy and Spain. But weak nations 
on one's frontiers, like Belgium and Mexico, may also 
be a menace for a different reason. Switzerland with 
her non-militaristic policy, is a protection to all her 
neighbors because she is prepared to maintain the in- 
violability of her soil and prevent its use as an avenue 
of attack on her neighbors. 

The sea which was once regarded as a source of 
security, is now the most favorable avenue of ap- 
proach for the nation or alliance which controls it. 

The only great powers that did not have universal 
training prior to the World War were Great Britain 
and America. Both nations fancied themselves secure 
because of their isolation, and England also felt se- 
cure because of her powerful navy. Yet both nations 
were drawn into the great war against their will, 
for both it was a defensive war, and both were forced 
to adopt "conscription," or "selective service," as 

[210] 



We euphemistically termed it. We make a distinction 
between "universal service" and "conscription." 
One is the perpetual guarantee of the freedom of a 
nation, the other is a disagreeable expedient forced 
upon an unwilling and short-sighted people. 

The league of nations is designed to reduce the fre- 
quency of war by preventing unnecessary war as far 
as possible. Perhaps it will have a great influence 
for peace, and we pray that it may. But its most ar- 
dent advocates do not claim that it will stop all wars. 
Meantime, should we join the league, it places great 
obligations upon the United States as the wealthiest 
and most powerful member thereof. These obliga- 
tions might draw us into a European or Asiatic war 
which, under our former policy of isolation, we might 
have been able to avoid. If we enter the league 
it is our duty to ourselves, and to other na- 
tions which rely on us, to humanity and civilization, 
to prepare ourselves worthily to discharge our obli- 
gations. Neither an individual nor a nation may 
rightfully assume grave obligations without making 
adequate preparation to meet them. 

So far has our once splendid isolation ceased to 
exist then, that we are interested even in the preser- 
vation of the "balance of power" in the world. The 
principle of the "balance of power" may be briefly 
described as follows. It is to the interest of every 
nation to prevent any possible opponent (and all 
nations are possible opponents) from acquiring so 

[211] 



much influence and power as to menace its security 
and the prosecution of its " policies. " The power 
which threatens our security might not be the mili- 
tary strength of a single nation, but would include 
all nations which might be induced to enter an of- 
fensive alliance against us as a result of the influence 
of one or more dominant hostile powers. One state, 
however powerful, can hardly expect to make head 
against the entire world. But it may hope to reach 
a position of such power and prestige that it can form 
an offensive alliance with certain nations, and insure 
the neutrality of others in such fashion as to be more 
powerful than any opposing alliance. When a nation 
having admittedly aggressive policies has reached, 
such a dominant position it is said to threaten the 
balance of power. This was the position of Germany 
just before the great war. A nation having only 
peaceable intentions will yet provide itself with such 
an armament that, with the assistance of dependable 
allies, it can count upon successfully defending itself 
against any probable enemies. Or it will provide 
such an armament that, in case of war between al- 
liances of other nations, it can intervene to insure the 
defeat of any alliance whose success would be a men- 
ace. Such was the position in which Great Britain 
believed herself to be, prior to the great war. Her 
margin of safety proved to be much narrower than 
she had supposed. The United States considered 

that they had no concern in this question of the bal- 

[2123 



ance of power. They found themselves mistaken, 
and were compelled to intervene in their own 
interests. 

Security by isolation has ceased to be and no state 
in these days can be indifferent to the maintenance 
of the balance of power, not a European balance alone, 
but a world balance. Accordingly a war between any 
two nations, even small ones may, and usually will, 
involve others, who are interested either in maintain- 
ing or destroying the balance of power. Because of 
the close relations and interdependence of nations in 
these days of the railroad, steamship and telegraph, 
the possibilities of any war in any part of the world 
are almost limitless. The play of world politics is 
far more intricate than a game of chess. We have 
seen a war between Austria and Serbia involve the 
entire world, including ourselves. A like result 
would be not only possible, but even probable in any 
future war between European states. We cannot tell 
when we may be obliged to intervene for our own 
safety, or to fulfill our obligations to the league of 
nations. In the face of such conditions can we afford 
to remain defenseless, trusting " to a political and 
geographical isolation which we know exists no 
longer ! 

We cannot foresee the future course of world poli- 
tics, the disturbance of present alliances or the forma- 
tion of others, the rise to power and prestige of some 
now negligible state, the formation of new ones, or 

[213] 



the date of and circumstances attendant upon the 
next great war. We do not know when the allies 
of to-day may become the enemies of to-morrow. 

The arguments for adequate preparedness for de- 
fense are constantly met by the question, "Against 
whom do we prepare? " General Wood once replied 
to this question by asking his interlocutor, "Against 
what storm does the builder of the ship prepare when 
he makes his vessel staunch and true?" We do not 
know what the next storm will be nor from which 
quarter it will blow. We only know, or should know, 
that the ship of state must be strong enough to 
weather any storm. 

Nothing is more unthinkable (at the present time 
of course) than a conflict with our cousins, the 
British. We mention it only as a possibility. In case 
of a disagreement with Britain, provided we are not 
prepared, Canada at once becomes a menace. What, 
in such a case, is to prevent Britain, or Canada, 
from seizing the very heart of our industrial life, the 
iron mines of Lake Superior, whence comes the bulk 
of the iron ore of which we use over fifty million 
tons annually? And even if the British could not 
hold these mines they could easily wreck the artery 
through which our life-blood is fed, the canal at the 
"Soo." Mexico is wide open as a base of operations 
against us by any enemy who controls the sea. An 
advance across our undefended Mexican border would 
be a very easy matter, leaving the inhabitants of the 

[214] 



states adjacent thereto at the mercy, not only of the 
invader, but of the lawless elements of Mexico who 
would flock into a country so rich with spoil. 

We refrain from any mention of many possible 
difficulties with our Pacific neighbor, Japan, because 
we do not wish to be accused of jingoism or of trying 
to stir up trouble. Nor will we discuss in detail possi- 
ble obligations arising out of our membership in the 
league of nations, should we join it. 

These are only a few of many possibilities, Ave have 
said nothing oi South America nor of the Philippines. 
They are possibilities and nothing more at the present 
time. But it is well to remember the saying that it 
is the unexpected that always happens. Just before 
the outbreak of the European War, in 1914, officers 
of the American army studied tactical problems on 
maps of the vicinity of Metz, in Lorraine, the scene 
of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Many well in- 
formed officers said at that time that we should use 
other maps because the wildest flight of the imagina- 
tion could not conceive any circumstances in which 
an American army would find itself fighting in this 
locality. Yet the very next battle in which an Ameri- 
can army did engage was fought in this very locality, 
within gun range of the town of Metz. This mistaken 
opinion was delivered by men better informed as to 
the possibilities of war than any other citizens of 
America. 

There is nothing more common than a " casus 

£215 J 




[216 ] 



belli/' an occasion or pretext for war between na- 
tions. Diplomats tell us that they arise and are dis- 
posed of constantly. Most of them never reach the 
ears of the public. Every outlying possession, every 
international relation, every private interest in for- 
eign lands or foreign trade, every ship on the ocean, 
every citizen traveling abroad, contain the germs of 
conflict between nations. 

Of course preparedness costs money. "We cannot 
get "something for nothing" in this matter-of-fact 
world. And yet this very hope of something for 
nothing is dear to the heart of the American, and has 
led him to pin his faith to a defensive policy, or lack 
of policy, whose inadequacy has been proved time and 
again, all in the hope of being able to evade the cost 
of something really worth while. We insure our own 
poor lives and our pitiful possessions, yet we have in 
the past persistently refused to insure the life of the 
nation. We continue to "take chances" in the face 
of the gravest danger that can confront a people. 

Preparedness is far less expensive than defeat. 
Parsimony in national defense is a poor form of 
economy, which invites ruin. There should be no 
waste, but that which is necessary to purchase the 
real article should be spent without stint. Cheap 
substitutes will prove dear in the long run as every 
military man well knows. When the lives of our 
loved ones are in danger we obtain the best profes- 
sional service and count not the cost if they be saved. 

[217] 



We should take the same attitude towards the life of 
the nation. 

None of us would feel inclined to place much con- 
fidence in an untrained amateur lawyer or surgeon. 
We demand skilled professional service. War is a 
profession no less than law or surgery, and the conse- 
quences of unskilled service are far more widespread 
and tragic. There is no field of human endeavor 
where the novice is so useless and so dangerous. 

The interest on our expenditures in the late war 
would far more than pay the cost of universal train- 
ing. Had we been prepared, Germany would not have 
forced us into the war, though we need have no re- 
grets as to that, in spite of our burden of debt. But 
we know that the Civil War, whose cost we are still 
paying in pensions, would have been avoided had we 
possessed a proper military policy; also, that im- 
mediately thereafter we avoided war with France, 
growing out of her occupation of Mexico, because we 
were prepared at that time. The voice of diplomacy 
was not loud, but clear across the Atlantic could be 
heard the harsh, firm tread of the millions of veteran 
soldiers of a re-united America, and France hastened 
to vacate Mexico. 

Had the United States possessed at the outbreak of 
the Civil War a trained army of 50,000 regulars, in- 
stead of 16,000, the Confederacy would have been 
crushed at Bull Run; or, rather, there would have 
been no war. That frightful struggle which for four 

[218] 



long years drenched our land in blood, was the price 
the nation paid for its unpreparedness. 

How great the value of an adequate military pol- 
icy as a national insurance is shown by the example 
of tiny Switzerland who, with a total population of 
less than four millions, was still so manifestly able 
to defend herself that mighty Germany considered it 
"inadvisable" to use her territory as an avenue of 
attack on France, but preferred Belgium, whose se- 
curity rested in "a scrap of paper" instead of the 
strong arms and brave hearts of loyal citizens trained 
and ready to defend their rights. We wish to cast 
no slurs upon the patriotism and devotion of the Bel- 
gians. But their example proves that patriotism can- 
not take the place of training to perform the duties 
of citizenship. Being, through no fault of her own, 
however, unprepared to resist, Belgium suffered the 
more because she was too proud to submit to the 
humiliation of invasion. But had Germany attempted 
to advance through Switzerland she would have 
reached the French border, if at all, only after a 
long and costly struggle, a fact which her military 
experts thoroughly appreciated. ' Switzerland must 
congratulate herself often in these days on her wis- 
dom in providing an adequate defense which so 
amply justified itself. Belgium was prevented by 
treaty from providing herself with an adequate de- 
fense, the powers having entrusted her security to "a 
scrap of paper," which was effective so far as Bel- 

[219 ] 



gium was concerned, but was disregarded by Ger- 
many. The existence of this iniquitous treaty (as 
it proved to be) was undoubtedly one of the incen- 
tives to Germany's schemes for world conquest. The 
treaty was not only ineffective to accomplish the 
purpose for which it was made, but it was positively 
dangerous in affording Germany a favorable opening 
for her attempted assassination of France. 

Germany's plan for the war was to overwhelm 
France, her most dangerous enemy, by a sudden at- 
tack, before Eussia and England could effectively 
intervene. The Franco-German frontier was strongly 
fortified by France, and an advance through Switzer- 
land would have been too slow and costly for Ger- 
many's purposes, because of Switzerland's great mili- 
tary strength. But the route through Belgium was 
wide open, protected only by a "sacred" treaty, 
which to Germany was "a scrap of paper" and no 
obstacle to her scheme of conquest. Hhd Belgium 
possessed a well trained and well equipped army, 
comparable to that of Switzerland, which, consider- 
ing her total population, would have been some 
700,000 men, the route through her territory would 
have been at least as difficult and dangerous as that 
through Switzerland. In such event Germany would 
not have started the war, because the chances of 
speedy success would have been too small and too 
uncertain. An army of 700,000 men, therefore, while 
greatly inferior to that of Germany, would have been 

[ 220 ] 



adequate to Belgium's national policies. The most 
cruel and destructive war of all time was the price 
that civilization paid for the unwise restrictions im- 
posed upon Belgium with reference to her national 
defense. It affords the most striking proof in history 
of the truth that unpreparedncss invites disaster. 
And in this case the disaster was not limited to un- 
fortunate Belgium, but overtook the entire civilized 
world. Let us profit by the lesson without again 
paying the terrible price exacted in this instance. 

Late reports indicate that Belgium is about to pro- 
vide herself with a force of 1,000,000 trained men as 
a security for the future. Civilization has much 
cause to rejoice at this eminently wise decision, but 
regrets that conditions did not permit that it be 
taken some years earlier. 

We can only shudder when we think of what de- 
feat due to lack of preparedness would have cost 
France. Germany's peace terms, had she been vic- 
torious, would have been dictated by her own inter- 
ests alone, according to the doctrine that "to the 
victor belong the spoils." 

There is a strong popular impression in the United 
States that defensive warfare is something distinct 
from offensive war, requiring much less preparation 
and training. There can be no greater mistake. The 
purpose of war, whether offensive or defensive, is to 
win, to gain the victory, and active measures alone 
can accomplish this result. The boxer who limits 

[221] 



himself to blocking the blows of his opponent can 
never win, and will certainly be beaten by any adver- 
sary approaching him in strength. So the army 
which remains always on the defensive surrenders 
the initiative to the enemy, and is doomed to defeat. 
"The best defense," says one noted military writer, 
"is an active offensive." Accordingly, whoever may 
have been the original aggressor in the war, both 
sides resort to offensive tactics at every opportunity. 
If one of the combatants is not strong enough to do 
this his defeat is only a question of time. In the late 
war the Allies were on the defensive, in that they 
had not brought on the war and sought only to de- 
fend themselves against the aggressions of Germany. 
Yet they constantly launched great offensive cam- 
paigns, and as far as the American 1st Army was 
concerned, it was never attacked by the Germans — 
all the attacks were made by America, and Germany 
was forced into a defensive attitude which resulted 
in her speedy downfall. So it will be evident that 
there is no tactical difference between the operations 
of the aggressor and those of the defender. The 
same operations are performed in each case, and the 
same high state of training is demanded. Of course, 
a state having an aggressive policy requires more 
power and a larger army than one having only a de- 
fensive policy, but whatever the size of the army it 
must be able to fight offensively as well as defensively, 
if it is to win victory or even avoid defeat. Had 

[ 222 ] 



Washington contented himself with meeting the 
attacks of the British, when he could not evade them, 
as a less resolute commander would have done with 
the scanty forces at his disposal, we should not have 
gained our independence. Washington knew that 
freedom for America could not he won by a supine 
attitude. The army which is always on the defensive 
eventually loses its morale and fighting spirit. As 
long as Germany was able to launch offensives against 
the Allies she kept up the spirit of her troops. As 
soon as the troops found that they were condemned 
to a perpetual defensive by reason of the superior 
strength of their enemies, their morale or will to con- 
quer, rapidly dwindled away. The great military 
machine which lived on victory had not the stamina 
to sustain defeat or even maintain a defensive atti- 
tude. The Confederacy was on the defensive during 
the Civil AVar, yet during the early part of the war 
nearly all the attacks were made by the Confederates 
because their leaders knew that only so could they 
hope to gain even a draw, which was all that they 
desired. The South had not sought to impose its 
will on the North, but only to be. allowed to do as it 
saw fit. 

It is the blows we strike and not those we fend 
which win victory. It was not by defensive tactics 
that France turned back the tide of German invasion 
at the Marne. 

The losses of a successful offensive in lives and 

[ 223 ] 




[ 224 J 



treasure, are far less than the losses of an unsuccess- 
ful defense. Nothing is so expensive as defeat. 

Many people still cling to the idea that a defensive 
war means only the repelling of an actual invasion of 
our territory. But the late war proves, if it needed 
any proof, that an actual invasion is not the only 
circumstance that may draw a nation into a purely 
defensive war. 

In defending ourselves we must strike our enemy 
where the blow will be most telling. In the last war 
in which we have engaged this was, quite unexpected- 
ly, in the north of France. TTho will say where it may 
be next time? It is always preferable, even in a de- 
fensive war, to fight in the enemy's territory rather 
than our own. For then our own soil remains in- 
violate. This is more important to-day than at any 
time in the past because of the frightful destruction 
and suffering wrought by modern war. At the out- 
break of the late conflict Germany's state of pre- 
paredness enabled her to carry the Avar at once into 
the enemy's territory and, in spite of her ultimate 
defeat, to keep it there. Thus was Germany spared 
the ravages of war on her own soil. 

It takes time to build up and organize any great 
business, and war is by far the greatest business in 
which man engages, as well as the most intricate, the 
most difficult and the most dangerous. The state of 
preparedness of our most formidable enemies does 
not allow us leisure to organize the business after 

[225 ] 



the outbreak of war, if we are to face them alone (as 
we did not in the late conflict). The organization 
must be perfected in time of peace, for when the blow 
falls it falls with the swiftness of a thunderbolt, often 
without previous declaration or warning. 

No matter how great the resources of a nation, it 
is not prepared for war unless it can bring those 
resources rapidly to bear on the field of battle. It is 
the strength, training and equipment of the army 
alone that count. Undeveloped resources of men and 
material, however great, have no influence on the fate 
of battle. 

War in ancient times was the strife of kings. To- 
day it is a conflict of nations. In olden times war 
was fought by a handful of trained professionals. To- 
day the whole nation goes forth. In olden times 
kings maintained standing armies strong enough to 
work their will. To-day no nation can do that, it , 
would bankrupt any who attempted it. The entire 
people must stand ready to answer the call, we must 
be "a nation in arms." The defense of the country 
cannot be left to a handful of trained professional 
soldiers. One might as well say, "We will keep a 
glass of water on the mantel in case of fire." 

China, to whom we must again refer as an example 
to be avoided, is the most populous nation on earth, 
and possessed of vast undeveloped resources. Yet 
she is utterly unable to defend herself. At the time 
of the Chinese-Japanese War China had ten times 

[ 226] 



the population and twenty times the resources of 
Japan. Yet Japan with a few lightning swift and 
heavy blows brought her huge but unwieldy antag- 
onist helpless to her knees. The reason for this was 
that Japan, unlike China, had converted her poten- 
tial resources, slender as they were, into actual mili- 
tary strength. She was "prepared" and China was 
not. The result of an armed conflict between the 
two nations could never for an instant have been in 
doubt. Japan dominates the Orient and works her 
will upon China because she has an armament in 
keeping with her policies. 

The defense of the state is the highest duty of the 
citizen. But if we acknowledge a duty we must ac- 
knowledge the necessity of preparing ourselves to 
perform that duty. Otherwise, we are plainly evad- 
ing it. 

General Wood says: "It is better to be ready for 
war and not to have it, than to have it and not be 
ready for it." The best way to avoid an unpleasant 
situation is to be prepared to meet it. 

The untrained soldier is a pitiable object in a 
modern battle against a trained foe. To send such 
soldiers to battle means doubling or trebling our 
losses. It is not fair to the men who lose their lives, 
nor to the country which loses the battle. It is like 
sending a man with a reed to oppose one with a rapier. 
It is too late to train when w r ar is upon us, especially 
too late to discipline raw forces. The modern mili- 
[ 227 ] 



tary powers effect their mobilizations and strike with 
their full strength in periods measured by hours. 
"Within forty-eight hours after the call went forth, at 
the opening of the late war, the Swiss army of over 
400,000 trained men was mobilized, equipped, and 
ready for battle. "We could not accomplish a pro- 
portionate result in as many weeks. What chance 
has the unprepared nation against a foe such as this? 

Compulsory universal training is merely an ex- 
tension of the system of compulsory education. Ed- 
ucation develops personality; universal training in 
citizenship will develop also nationality. 

We compel obedience to a vast number of diversi- 
fied laws. Shall we not also compel the citizen to be 
a true citizen in all respects, and to prepare himself 
to shoulder Kis responsibilities, including that of do 
fending his country in case of need? 

It is most inconsistent to condemn the compulsory 
feature of universal training on the ground that com- 
pulsion is repugnant to a free people. We must dis- 
criminate between liberty and license. The liberty of 
the individual cannot be placed above the welfare of 
the community and of the nation. We compel obed- 
ience to all our laws. We compel our people to do 
many things that are necessary to the common weal, 
but which often many of them would not do otherwise. 
In every form of industrial or social activity and in 
every human relation governmental compulsion of 
some kind or other is applied. Even the home life 

[ 228 ] 



of the family is not exempt. Government indeed con- 
sists largely of compulsions and restraints. Without 
compulsion there would be no government, and with- 
out government we should be a race of savages in- 
stead of a nation of civilized people. If compulsion 
applied were a valid ground for objection, this ob- 
jection could properly be urged against every law 
of the land. When the voice of the people has pro- 
claimed a certain law as wise and necessary, all must 
obey and those who will not do so from a proper 
sense of duty are subjected to compulsion. Such is 
the very essence of democratic government. And in 
universal training, as in every other democratic in- 
stitution, the compulsion is the will of the people, and 
not the whim of a despot or military caste. More- 
over, we should not associate the idea of an odious 
compulsion with an honorable obligation to perform 
the highest of all duties, service to the state. 

When you see everybody using a certain article, 
that is the best possible proof that the article has 
merit. From this rule we may obtain the proof of 
the value of universal training from a purely mili- 
tary point of view, or as a national insurance against 
war or defeat in case of war. Germany adopted uni- 
versal training because she knew it would give her 
the most efficient military machine with which to 
further her schemes of conquest. France adopted 
universal training because she knew it afforded her 
the only sure guarantee against the aggressions of 

[ 229 ] 



Germany. Most of the continental European nations 
and some of the republics of South America have 
universal training, and had it even before the great 
war, because all of them have enemies, or possible 
enemies, on their land frontiers against whom they 
must be prepared to defend themselves. Most of them 
certainly adopted it as a purely defensive measure; 
for example, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway, who 
certainly have no dreams of conquest and desire noth- 
ing except to be allowed to live in peace. 

Is it right that any considerable number of our 
citizens should be left totally unfit to perform effi- 
ciently a task which any citizen may be called upon 
at any time to perform? 

To ask the government to conduct a great war with- 
out a sufficient reserve of trained men and trained 
officers, is like asking a manufacturer to operate his 
factory and produce his product with a new force 
of perfectly ignorant and untrained foremen and 
workers. The manufacturer would probably say it 
meant the ruin of his business, yet without a sound 
military policy established in time of peace this is 
the situation that confronts the government at the 
outbreak of every war. We have always been least 
prepared for the greatest emergency a government 
and a people can be called to face. 

We should not and cannot establish or maintain in 
time of peace a volunteer standing army sufficient for 
the prosecution of a great war. Yet we must have 

[ 230 ] 



a system, a democratic and efficient system, which in- 
sures an adequate defense when needed. Many other 
nations have faced the same momentous question and 
all have found the same answer : obligatory service in 
war, made effective by obligatory training in peace. 
It will be apparent without argument that the more 
nearly universal the double obligation the more dem- 
ocratic and the more efficient the system. 

Only a small part of the manhood of the nation 
actually bears arms in the face of the enemy. The 
obligation of the citizen to serve the country covers a 
thousand things besides bearing arms. There is not 
an art or a science known to mankind, from astron- 
omy to bacteriology, but has its place in modern war. 
Even the minister of the gospel and the musician, the 
exponents of peace on earth the gentlest of the arts, 
are called upon to do their share. Modern war is a 
conflict not of armies alone, but of entire peoples. 
Every man, woman and child of the nation must do 
their part, whether by service of sacrifice. All the 
resources of the nation, moral, intellectual, and phys- 
ical, must be pledged to the prosecution of the conflict. 

It is not a love of militarism but hard necessity 
that has compelled other free peoples to adopt uni- 
versal service. We are in no different situation. 

Voluntary service is more conducive to militarism 
than universal service, because those who volunteer 
to serve the state while others hold back, not unnatu- 
rally feel that they should have a voice in the gov- 

[231] 



ernment of the state greater than that of "the shirk- 
ers." Where all are equally liable to service there 
can be no such tendency. 

Some of those who favor universal training admit 
a loss to industry by the withdrawal of many young 
men from civil pursuits, which they say is compen- 
sated by the advantages conferred. There is no occa- 
sion for such apologies, and universal training needs 
them not, it stands on its own merits without apology 
or excuse. Far from suffering, industry will be enor- 
mously benefited by universal training. It is, in fact, 
the benefits conferred upon industry that constitute 
one of the chief arguments in its favor. A vast num- 
ber of employers of labor have borne witness as to 
the increased industrial efficiency and reliability of 
employees who have received military training and 
discipline. Certainly we have never regarded the 
usual forms of education as a burden to industry. 
On the contrary, industry is dependent on them for 
success. Universal training will instill into our young 
men habits of obedience, submission to authority, de- 
pendability and thoroughness. And it will give them 
the physique which will increase the amount of work 
they can do in a given time, as well as reduce the 
time lost from sickness and increase the span of their 
useful industrial lives. It is wrong to say that such 
training would constitute a loss to industry or agri- 
culture. We may profit by the example of our late 
enemy, Germany, who prior to the war was the most 

[ 232 ] 



efficient industrial nation in Europe. Germany at- 
tributed her industrial success largely to her system 
of training, which was universal. Universal training 
will be for America a great industrial training school 
for the youth of the nation. 

In the conflict just concluded the peculiar cir- 
cumstances were such that we had opportunity to 
make preparations behind a wall of defense erected 
by our allies. We practically took our own time and 
joined conflict with our enemy when we felt at least 
partially prepared to do so. We did not face him 
alone in his full strength and vigor, but only assisted 
others to put the finishing touches, as it were, to an 
enemy already well nigh exhausted with four years of 
continuous warfare. "We should not blind ourselves to 
these truths nor to the fact that such circumstances 
probably will not be repeated in the next war. Had 
we been obliged from the beginning to face alone the 
fury of a powerful foe we should have faced him un- 
prepared, and have suffered grievously in conse- 
quence, even as France and civilization would have 
suffered, had that gallant nation not been fully pre- 
pared at the outset to hold the brutal enemy of man- 
kind in check. 

But even supposing that the conditions were to exist 
again. Are we, now that our eyes have been opened, 
to play the selfish, the ignoble part ? Is free and 
mighty America to seek shelter behind the brave 
army of France or the devoted navy of England? 

[ 233 ] 




[234] 



Are we to depend for our safety on those who are 
smaller and poorer than ourselves? Let us not put 
noble America, ' ' the land of the free and the home of 
the brave/' in such a humiliating position of depend- 
ence on others. Let us take our stand, not crouching 
behind our allies, but erect on our feet beside them, or 
alone if need be. Let us depend for our safety in 
this world of strife not on "scraps of paper," not on 
the changeable friendship of others, but on the stout 
hearts and strong arms of our own brave and loyal 
citizens. Let us make America a mighty champion 
of liberty and right, behind whose broad back the 
weak and oppressed of earth may find shelter from 
cruelty and oppression. Let us realize in very truth 
the words of that old patriotic song which we have so 
long required our children to sing with their lips, but 
have not always enabled them to feel in their hearts : 

Columbia, the gem of the ocean, 

The land of the brave and the free, 
The shrine of each patriot's devotion — 

A world offers homage to thee. 
Thy mandates make heroes assemble 

When liberty's form stands in view. 
Thy banners make tyranny 'tremble, 

When borne by the red, white and blue. 

Every word of the brave old song should be graven 
on the heart of every citizen of the great Republic. 
Every one of them should highly resolve to make every 
brave word true. 

Let us be respected in the world because it is known 

[235] 



we are a righteous nation, and that we have a strong 
right arm with a mailed fist at the end of it and are 
prepared to land a knockout blow on any who dare 
trample on our rights. And there will be none to 
affront this mightiest of nations, able to put fifteen 
million fighting men in the field and a hundred super - 
dreadnaughts on the sea. The security of the lion is 
more in keeping with the dignity of America than 
that of the guinea pig. Do you remember that old 
flag showing a coiled serpent, and the motto, " Don't 
tread on me"! Let us have all the world know that 
we are not to be trodden on. 

Weakness of the Voluntary System 

Painful experience in our own and many other 
countries has repeatedly proved that the voluntary 
or volunteer system of military service is utterly in- 
adequate to the prosecution of a great war. All the 
great military nations have long since abandoned it. 
In four wars the United States have risked national 
humiliation and disaster by fatuous adherence to 
this outworn system. We refer to the Revolution, 
the War of 1812, the Civil and Mexican Wars. In 
the world war we very wisely adopted Universal Serv- 
ice from the outset. Had we done otherwise Germany 
would to-day be victorious, and European civiliza- 
tion under the heel of Prussian militarism. 

Voluntary service does not produce men in suffi- 
cient numbers, nor at a sufficient rate for the prosecu- 

[236] 










[ 237 ] 



tion of a great war. The number that will respond is 
variable and uncertain and always inadequate, and 
it is impossible to make satisfactory arrangements for 
mobilization and training. 

Washington said : 

Regular troops alone are equal to the exigencies of 
modern war, as well for defense as offense, and when a 
substitute is attempted it must prove illusory and ruinous. 

By regular troops he meant, of course, troops that 
were properly trained. Volunteer troops are neces- 
sarily always untrained, the words are synonymous. 
What was true in Washington's day is even more 
true in the present time, when war is far more com- 
plex and demands greater training and preparation. 
Even if all able-bodied men should volunteer for 
service at the outbreak of war, their patriotism would 
not compensate for lack of training. To successfully 
oppose a nation of veteran soldiers we must be such 
ourselves. 

General Wood says that to send men untrained into 
battle doubles the number of deaths. He is conserva- 
tive in the statement. 

Another serious objection that has been urged, and 
rightly, against the voluntary system of military 
service in time of war is this: It kills those who are 
most fit physically, most courageous and self-sacri- 
ficing, most enterprising and most devoted to their 
country, while it spares the weak, the cowardly and 

[ 238 ] 



the selfish. Universal obligation distributes the burd- 
en in proper proportion amongst all classes. 

As to placing individuals where they can best serve 
the country, the voluntary system is utterly hap- 
hazard. The skilled mechanic who is needed in in- 
dustry, the man having heavy business and family 
responsibilities, and whose death brings great hard- 
ship on others, may go to the front and be sacrificed. 
The unskilled laborer and the man without responsi- 
bilities, who would have made as good soldiers, re- 
main at home. The volunteer system is thus highly 
undemocratic in its failure to recognize the equal 
rights and obligations of citizens, and highly ineffi- 
cient in not placing each where he can perform the 
most useful service. 

Voluntary service is thus certain to seriously dis- 
turb the industries and obligations which are essen- 
tial to the prosecution of the war and the welfare of 
the nation. Selective service, as employed during the 
late conflict, permits the intelligent assignment and 
distribution of men to the essential industries as 
well as to the army and. navy. It drives men out of 
the non-productive or harmful pursuits into the nec- 
essary and productive. The "work or fight " prin- 
ciple, intelligently applied, will secure any desired 
adjustment of the labor supply. In a word, selective 
service permits the intelligent regulation of industry 
at home as well as service at the front. 

Universal service is truly democratic in that it 

[ 239 ] 



equally distributes the burden and leaves to no man 
the often trying decision as to whether he shall serve 
in this capacity or that. Only the government is quali- 
fied to decide who shall bear arms and who shall re- 
main in industry or for the care of dependents. Uni- 
versal service equitably distributes the burden and 
places each citizen where he can render the most useful 
service. Those who remain at home are relieved by 
the government's decision from any criticism that 
might otherwise have been directtd against them for 
failure to volunteer. All are relieved of the burden- 
some necessity of having to make the fateful decision 
for themselves or of having it made for them by their 
families, who naturally are not qualified to do so. 
Men with heavy business and family responsibilities 
will not be subjected to the embarrassment of having 
to weigh such considerations against their duty to * 
their country and their patriotic instincts. 

The voluntary system of training is useless as a 
military measure in time of peace, because few will 
volunteer to subject themselves to the training. Bit- 
ter experience in our own and many other countries 
has proved that voluntary service is inadequate as 
a defensive measure in time of war, because few men 
respond, and not always are those who volunteeer 
for service in time of war the same as those who vol- 
unteer for training in time of peace, as a result of 
which much of the volunteer training is wasted. 
Compulsory universal service is the only efficient, 

[240] 



equitable, democratic and economical system of nat- 
ional defense. And its necessary accompaniment is 
universal training in peace, for if the citizen recog- 
nizes his duty to defend his country in case of war he 
must recognize the included obligation and necessity 
of preparing himself efficiently to perform that duty. 

There has been in our country in the past a stigma 
attached to the words "conscript," and "drafted 
men." This is unfair, because most of these men 
have served their country quite as patriotically and 
efficiently as volunteers. That an improper and very 
odious distinction has been created is another crime 
chargeable to the old voluntary system, which, we 
hope, is now gone for all time. Under universal 
service, when all are liable for duty, the words "vol- 
unteer" and "conscript" cease to have any meaning. 
There are no volunteers and no conscripts, only pa- 
triots answering the country's call to duty. 

America's reliance on the voluntary system in the 
past is merely one of the manifestations of the nation- 
al tendency to "take chances." 

It has been said of us that as- a nation we worship 
success rather than skill. And so we have been con- 
tent, and even proud, that success has attended all 
our armed conflicts. We have not as yet experienced 
the chastening discipline of defeat. Our histories 
record our successes, but they do not record the 
enormous and unnecessary expenditures of blood and 
treasure with which those successes have been pur- 

[241] 



chased. We have triumphed not because of our effi- 
ciency, but in spite of our inefficiency, and have been 
lulled into that false sense of security which is the 
natural concomitant of unearned success. This in- 
dulgence of fate may not be wholly a kindness. 
Sooner or later we will face the inevitable reckoning 
if we continue to misread the lessons spread before 
our eyes and persist in our traditional negligence 
and indifference. 

As to the wastefulness and inefficiency of volunteer 
military service and the folly and danger of relying 
upon it, we may cull plenty of examples from our 
own military history. These are examples which 
should be familiar to every citizen, but there are 
very few who have ever heard ot them. They have 
been carefully excluded from our school histories. 

In the Revolution, England did not turn her full 
strength against us, and to that fact we owe our 
existence as a nation. The greatest number of British 
troops in America at any time during the war was 
42,000 men. To oppose this small force, making war 
overseas in a foreign land, we employed no less than 
400,000 men (volunteers all) and incurred a debt 
of 370 millions. Yet the greatest army Washington 
ever had at his disposal was 17,000 hungry, ragged 
men. Mutiny was of frequent occurrence, and time 
and again our green troops, when opposed to the 
trained invaders, laid down their arms and disgrace- 
fully fled from the field. For seven years a handful 

[242] 



of British regulars held by the throat a nation of 
3,000,000 people who did not know how to bring their 
strength to bear. In all the long seven years we gain- 
ed but one decisive victory (Saratoga) and we would 
have been defeated in the end except for the assist- 
ance of our ally, France. 

At the outbreak of the War of 1812 the states of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut defied the Federal 
Government and refused to furnish their quotas of 
troops. General Hopkins led a force of 4,000 militia 
against the Indians. On the fourth day they saw a 
prairie fire, became panic stricken, threw down their 
arms, deserted their general and fled to their homes. 
At Bladensburg, a little town just outside of Wash- 
ington, the "continental army," 7,000 strong, was 
assembled for the defense of the national capital 
against a force of 3,500 British regulars. As the 
first British regiment deployed and opened fire the 
American "army" threw down its arms and, in the 
outraged presence of the President of the United 
States and his cabinet, fled from the field, having suf- 
fered a loss of 8 killed and 31 wounded. The 
British advanced without opposition, sacked our capi- 
tal and burned our public buildings. These Ameri- 
cans were no cowards. They were the brothers and 
cousins of the splendid regulars who, at the battle of 
Lundy's Lane, in the same war, scorned to leave the 
field and achieved ultimate victory after suffering a 

[243] 



loss of nearly 30 per cent of their number. The dif- 
ference in the two armies was in training alone. 

In the prosecution of this war (1812) we employed 
528,000 volunteers. The mistakes of the Revolution 
were repeated in an aggravated form. The greatest 
number of British troops in America at any time was 
16,000, and the greatest number in any battle 5,000. 
For two years the invaders ravaged our country and 
defied the efforts of a nation of seven millions to 
expel them. Imagine the fate of an invading army 
of 16,000 in Switzerland to-day! Yet Switzerland 
is to-day a less populous country than were the 
United States in 1812. 

In the Mexican War our volunteer soldiers claimed 
their discharge in the middle of the campaign, and 
left General Scott with his little force of 6,000 regu- 
lars alone in the enemy's country, facing annihilation. 

These are the solemn facts of history, and they 
prove without any further argument the utter in- 
adequacy of the volunteer system. 

The Bogey of Militarism 

Does universal training tend towards militarism? 
Militarism does not consist in the existence of an 
army. It is a national policy and consists in a doc- 
trine of aggression and the control of the government 
of the state by the exponents of that doctrine. Ger- 
many, the worst example of ' ' militarism, ' ' frankly 

[ 244] 



pursued a policy of aggression in building up the 
empire. The German "junkers'' controlled the gov- 
ernment, and educated the people to a policy of con- 
quest. Germany's policy of aggression was so frank 
that her public men wrote volumes freely admitting 
and attempting to justify, even to glorify, the policy. 
Nothing of the sort can be found in the writings or 
utterances of any of our soldiers or public men. 
There have been no incidents in this country such as 
the sabering of a lame shoemaker by a Prussian 
officer on the street of Zabern. The possession of 
military strength does not mean militarism, as 
France, Great Britain and America have proven, any 
more than the possession of physical strength and 
courage mean that a man must be a bully, a menace 
to society. It is only when he misuses his strength 
that he becomes a menace. 

The difference between militarism and adequate 
national defense is the difference between imperial- 
istic aims of conquest and the legitimate aspirations 
of a free and righteous people, able to defend their 
free institutions. 

The fear of governmental tyranny is an inheritance 
from medieval times. Ours is a government for and 
by the people. It can never become an instrument 
of tyranny. Democracy is the very antithesis of 
militarism. 

General Wood says : 

[245 ] 



I advocate universal training, not as an approach to 
militarism, but as an escape from it. It is democracy in 
its essence, for it is without inequalities and discrimina- 
tions. 

The downfall of the government of a state, due to 
lack of preparedness to maintain itself, brings on 
military dictatorship. When democratic government 
is forced to give rip the reins militarism steps in and 
seizes them. History affords many examples of the 
truth of this statement. The downfall of the Russian 
and of the German governments during the late war 
was in each case followed by a military dictatorship. 

Universal training does not mean compulsory mili- 
tary service in time of peace. The working man who 
is earning $10 a day will not be snatched from his 
position and forced into the army on a pittance 
while his family is left to starve. The training wdll 
be given in early youth, before the individual has 
taken up his life work or contracted business or fam- 
ily obligations. Every young man will know 7 that it 
is coming, and when, and can adjust his affairs to 
meet it. 

In case of a great war we will have compulsory 
service, as we had in the late war. As a result of 
universal training, the youth who would in any case 
be compelled to serve will be prepared to render use- 
ful service. 

The argument that we should remain defenseless 
because the possession of an adequate system of de- 

[246] 




[247] 



fense might lead us to aggressions upon our harmless 
neighbors has as much logic as the argument that we 
should cease using machinery in industry, because 
hundreds of workers are annually killed or maimed 
by these machines. Is it wise to deliberately invite 
aggression on our own soil because of an ill-founded 
apprehension for the safety of others? 

If two nations have irreconcilable differences they 
will go to war, whether they be prepared or not. 
Neither the North nor the South was prepared for 
the Civil War, but that fact did not prevent the con- 
flict. Even admitting that preparedness leads to war, 
it will still be observed that war usually takes the 
form of aggression by the prepared upon the unpre- 
pared, and always results in disaster to the latter. 
The dangers of aggression from without and anarchy 
from w T ithin are far greater than those of militarism. 
Altruism, like charity, begins at home. 

History proves that a democracy is, of all govern- 
ments, the least likely to wage a war of aggression. 
Accordingly, by substituting popular government for 
absolutism, which the world war will ultimately ac- 
complish in several of the great military states of 
Europe, we are providing one of the best, probably 
the very best possible safeguard against aggressive 
wars in the future. President Wilson says: 

Self governed nations clo not fill their neighbor states 
with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some 

[248] 



critical posture of affairs which will give them an oppor- 
tunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs can 
be successfully worked out only under cover and where no 
one has the right to ask questions. . . . They are 
happily impossible where public opinion commands and 
insists upon full information concerning all the nation's 
affairs. A steadfast concert for peace can never be main- 
tained except by a partnership of democratic nations. . . . 

The bogey of militarism looms so large in the minds 
of some of our well meaning but sadly misguided 
citizens that they would rather have seen Germany 
crush civilization than allow this country to enter the 
struggle on the side of hard-pressed democracy. At 
least we must judge them by their own utterances and 
actions. But which is sweeter. The peace of honor 
and righteousness we now enjoy, or the peace of 
selfishness in which the pacifists would have kept us ! 
Men have died for their ideals, and the world has 
been the better for their sacrifices. When we have 
reached the great "milleniiim" in which men will no 
longer die for their ideals, nor nations war in defense 
of their rights, then indeed will we be a race not fit 
to inhabit God's beautiful earth. - But that time will 
never come. Men are to-day as ready to die for their 
ideals or fight for their national rights as the heroes 
of ancient Greece. 

The pacifist who would shear the nation of its 
power to defend itself against aggression, is a maker 
of war. Untrained and unprepared, if we resist vre 

[ 249 ] 



suffer death and desolation ; if we submit we lose our 
liberty and birthrights. 

Fears of militarism are based very largely on the 
supposed idleness of the army in times of peace, and 
its lack of daily contact with the people. And ob- 
jections to the regular army, admittedly necessary as 
a provision against war, are based on the alleged use- 
less expense of maintaining an army in times of peace. 
The fears and objections of those who honestly en- 
tertain such views will be quieted by universal train- 
ing. In assuming the responsibility for the training 
of our young men the army will perform in times of 
peace the highest and noblest duty to which a public 
servant may be called, and the resulting intimate con- 
tact between the army and the people will further 
democratize the army, establish it firmly in the esteem 
and confidence of the public, and allay all fears of 
"militarism." 

A regular army which, in the administration of 
universal training, was brought into intimate con- 
tact with the people, could never become the tool of 
a militaristic policy. The small size of the army alone 
prevents this. If we do not have universal training 
we must necessarily provide a larger standing army, 
as it would be the sole force on which we could de- 
pend for safety in case of war. When all the male 
citizens are trained for military duty a large stand- 
ing army becomes unnecessary. 

There has never been an occurrence in this country 

[ 250 ] 



which could give any real grounds for a fear of mili- 
tarism. Such fears are based on supposition and 
have no real foundation in actual fact. 

The fear of militarism in this country is the fear 
of a bogey. But the dangers of anarchy are real, as 
any citizen can to-day easily see for himself. 

Those who believe that military power means "mil- 
itarism" in its obnoxious sense, merely confuse 
strength with the abuse of strength. Liberty holds 
a torch in one hand, a sword in the other. They 
represent knowledge and independence, the two guar- 
antees of freedom. Universal training provides the 
one no less than the other. 

"Preparedness means war," says the pacifist. It 
does indeed. It means war, continuous war on ig- 
norance, poverty and disease ; unrelenting war on dis- 
order, anarchy and crime ; victorious war on every 
evil influence that threatens the free institutions of 
America and the flag that we hold sacred. 

Labor and Universal Training 

A number of labor leaders have in the past rather 
consistently opposed policies designed to secure a 
better national defense. And in particular they have 
opposed any increase in the standing army in time of 
peace. We have pointed out that universal training 
makes a large standing army unnecessary. For this 
reason, if for no other, labor from its point of view 
should favor universal training. 

[251] 



Labor, of course, is not opposed to adequate nation- 
al defense as such. We mean patriotic American 
labor, and not the lawless, anarchistic element which 
recognizes no obligations to America, has no interest 
in our national welfare, and is actuated by no motives 
except greed and a lust for power. No honest citizen 
is opposed to national defense, it is only that we have 
great differences of opinion as to what constitutes 
adequate defense. 

No class of our citizens has a greater interest than 
has labor in the preservation of tranquillity and 
peace. In case of a foreign invasion labor must fur- 
nish the greatest proportion of fighting men for the 
defense of the country, it is upon that class that the 
burden rests most heavily. It is the internal peace 
and tranquillity of our land that enable labor to 
pursue its calling undisturbed. To maintain law and 
order we must have .an adequate police force. Ex- 
perience shows that whenever such protection is even 
temporarily withdrawn the lawless element gains the 
upper hand. It is thus also in international affairs. 
A national force, including a standing army and a 
trained and organized citizenry, is necessary to se- 
cure the peace of the land against organized aggres- 
sion, whether from without or from within. 

The opposition of certain labor leaders to some 
of our proposed defensive policies is based on a rather 
fixed belief that, to use their own words, "any in- 
crease in our military establishment would be a 

[ 252 ] 




[ 253 ] 



menace to the liberties of the laboiing man." Which 
of his liberties? Undoubtedly they have in mind his 
liberty to strike for his rights and privileges. But 
it is one thing to strike for honest rights and privi- 
leges, and quite another to stop industry and over- 
throw law and order from motives of greed and self- 
ishness or in a lust for power which labor cannot and 
should not ask to wield. It is one thing to quietly 
stop work ourselves as a protest against conditions, 
and quite another to prevent those who have no griev- 
ance from continuing to work if they so desire. 

Although we have always had a standing army, it 
has never in all our history been employed to oppose 
or break a strike of labor. The occasions when the 
regular army has been used at all during strikes are 
exceedingly rare, and on these rare occasions it was 
employed solely to preserve law and order and not 
to prevent or break up a strike. The country has 
learned from sad experience that strikes are some- 
times accompanied by riot, destruction of property, 
assault, bloodshed and murder. And it has the right 
to protect itself against these crimes. Intelligent and 
patriotic labor condemns such practices, which are 
indeed inimical to its own interests. But there are 
alien and lawless elements in the ranks of labor and 
outside of them which often go beyond control during 
times of stress, such as a great strike. Labor does 
not, and cannot, deny the right of the community to 
preserve law and order, and to employ the military if 

[254 j 



necessary for this purpose. Public sentiment sup- 
ports the legitimate aspirations of labor. But it 
does not support greed and "profiteering" on the 
part of labor any more than on the part of capital. 

Labor and capital are fundamental elements of 
society and are mutually dependent. Neither can 
exist without the other, and both are necessary to 
organized society. They are, however, merely ele- 
ments of the community, like lawyers, doctors and 
other classes, and they have the same obligations to 
society. While each class has its rights, the rights of 
the community as a whole are superior to those of 
any of its component classes, and no class should 
wish to assert itself in disregard of the rights of so- 
ciety. The public has a right to protect itself against 
uprisings of anarchy in which, under the guise of 
protest against conditions of labor, a lawless foreign 
element recognizing no obligations to America, at- 
tempts for purely selfish reasons to seize power and 
profit to which it is in no sense entitled. It is the 
right and duty of the rulers of the Renublic to pro- 
tect America against anarchy even to the extent of 
stopping immigration and deporting lawless aliens, if 
such drastic measures are forced upon them. 

Labor has a legal right to strike. It even has a 
legal right to carry out a strike which may tie up the 
transportation of the country, shut off the coal and 
iron supplies and bring ruin, misery, starvation and 
even death to any number of innocent persons who 

[ 255 3 



are in no way concerned in the controversy between 
capital and labor. There is no legal limit to the 
misery and suffering which a strike may produce. 
All that we deny to organized labor is the right to 
prevent others from working if they so desire, the 
right to riot and murder. But while there are no 
other legal limitations as to strikes, whosoever inter- 
rupts our tranquillity should take notice that there 
is a limit to the patience of the long-suffering 
American people. There is a limit to what we will 
endure for the benefit of those who seek selfish ends. 

The honest and patriotic element of the laboring 
classes has no wish to inflict hardship upon the inno- 
cent community, and would deny the right of either 
capital or labor, or any other class, to sacrifice the 
community in an effort to force its own interests into 
prominence. 

When capital and labor engage in an industry 
which is necessary to the comfort, health and life of 
the nation, they become the servants of the com- 
munity, just as the army, the navy, police, school 
teachers, etc., are servants of tlie community. The 
tranquillity of the community depends on the orderly 
performance of their duties by all classes. If there 
are differences to be adjusted, this must be accomp- 
lished by some method other than an attempt to dis- 
rupt the community. If capital and labor cannot 
arrive at an amicable settlement of their disputes the 
government, acting in the interests of the nation as 

[ 256] 



a whole, has the right to step in, examine all the 
evidence in the case, and render a fair decision by 
which both sides should abide. This is merely an 
application of the fundamental principle that the 
rights of the public are superior to these of any in- 
dividual or class. 

It is only through favorable public sentiment that 
labor can gain any permanent advantage. Accord- 
ingly, any policy that injures and antagonizes the 
public, is a short-sighted policy from labor's own 
X>oint of view. There is danger to the hopes and as- 
pirations of honest labor in the wave of public in- 
dignation against labor radicalism at the present time. 
In recent years there has developed a wide-spread 
sympathy with the aims of labor, on the part of the 
general public. It would be a great misfortune to 
labor if the excesses of the radical element in its own 
ranks should turn this sympathy into opposition and 
hatred. 

In his message to Congress in December, 1919, 
President "Wilson said: 

In America there is but one way by which great reforms 
can be accomplished and the relief sought by classes ob- 
tained, and that is through the orderly processes of repre- 
sentative government. Those who would propose any 
other method are enemies of this country. . . . Let 
those beware who would take the shorter road of disorder 
and revolution. 

There is something more important than a privi- 

[257] 



lege, something higher than a right, and that is a 
moral obligation. The true patriot is more solicitous 
to do his duty by others than to insist upon his own 
rights. We will be a worthier people when we are 
more anxious to fulfill our obligations and duties, 
and less jealous and uncompromising in demanding 
"rights" at the expense of our fellow citizens. Labor 
owes allegiance to the community, as do all citizens. 
Soldiers who would strike for higher wages in the face 
of the enemy would be regarded as highly unpatriotic, 
not to say traitorous. Yet hitherto it has been con- 
ceded that labor may legally take advantage of a 
coal shortage and the prospects of a hard winter and 
much suffering for the poor, to gain its ends by stop- 
ping industry, the output of mines cOid factories, 
tieing up transportation, giving rein to the lawless 
elements of society, and threatening the country with s 
anarchy and revolution such as we so narrowly es- 
caped in the great steel strike. 

We have not hitherto denied labor's legal right 
to do these things. Yet there must be, of course, a 
limit to the amount of suffering which the community 
at large can justly be asked to endure in the interests 
of any class. And if any class, whether capital or 
labor, persistently exceeds this reasonable limit, it 
must ultimately lose the public's support and sym- 
pathy on which its welfare depends. The justice of 
this must be admitted by all. Accordingly, honest 
labor will join the rest of us in deploring the use, in 

[ 258 ] 




The effects of proper training. The sentinel is a "plebe" on guard for 
the first time. Note the trimmer appearance of the cadet officer as 
a. result of right training. 
[ 259 ] 



its fight for its rights, of this cruel two-edged sword, 
whose nether edge so grievously wounds the innocent 
community to which all classes owe the same duty 
that a soldier owes to his country. And labor will 
join us in wishing God-speed to the day when this 
dangerous weapon shall no longer be employed. 

We look confidently forward to that great day 
when a higher appreciation of our moral obligations 
and patriotic duties will be felt by all citizens, when 
a broader education and an all-pervading spirit of 
democracy, sympathetic understanding and brotherly 
love will draw us closer together and end forever the 
intolerance, injustice and selfishness which now un- 
happily characterizes so many of our human relations. 

In that great day sympathy, mutual understanding 
and mutual helpfulness will take the place of the 
strike and the lock-out. We know of nothing else^ 
that will hasten that day so much as universal edu- 
cation in the duties of citizenship and obligation to 
our fellow-man, universal training in loyalty and 
loving-kindness, universal association in good fellow- 
ship and brotherly love. These, fellow citizens, are 
the glorious prospects universal training holds out to 
us. They are within our grasp, we may seize them if 
we will. And the time is now. 

The Obligation of Service 

Democracy will not stand solely on its own merits. 
Unless the citizens realize their obligation to the 

[ 260 ] 



state, and are prepared to defend it in case of need, it 
must perish. Democracy lives not in the halls of 
state, but in the hearts of its patriotic citizens. 

A nation which would rise as one man in defense of 
its rights would apparently need no laws concerning 
the obligations of the citizens to the state. But this 
spirit does not grow spontaneously. It must be cul- 
tivated, like an apple tree which would otherwise pro- 
duce dwarfed or bitter apples. The decision cannot 
be left to each individual as concerns his own actions. 
If the nation does not regard the obligation as suf- 
ficiently important to base laws upon it the citizen 
cannot be expected to entertain a higher regard. If 
the law is enacted it becomes, in a representative 
government, the will of all the people which all ac- 
cept as a matter of course, and the idea of "compul- 
sion" in connection with it disappears. It is simply 
legalizing a moral obligation which all recognize. We 
do not "compel" our children to go to their schools 
in the sense of actually applying force. They under- 
stand that schooling is right and necessary, and when 
the time comes we send them to school and they go 
without rebelling against our authority. Yet we know 
well that they would not go to school of their own 
entirely free will. If they did we should perhaps be 
inclined to regard them with a suspicion that they 
were not perfectly normal children. 

And it is not military service alone that the state 
should command, but service of every kind. And the 

[261] 



obligation does not rest alone upon the physically fit 
male citizens between the ages of 21 and 45, or what- 
ever they may be, but upon every man, woman and 
child of the nation. It is not armies alone that need 
training and discipline, but entire peoples. Disci- 
pline at home and in industry is important, as well as 
discipline on the field of battle. 

While the obligation of the citizen to serve the state 
is, as Washington said, the main pillar of a free gov- 
ernment, yet in America the citizen has never been 
called upon to recognize such obligation in time of 
peace, and seldom in war. As a result many of us 
have come to look upon this obligation to our country 
as a gift, which we may bestow or withhold at our 
pleasure or whim, and without reproach. Insecure 
is the state whose citizens have such a narrow and 
individualistic view of the most sacred duty of citi- 
zenship. "Were such a spirit to become general 
amongst our people it would mean the end of America 
as a free and independent state. 

We do not depend for the financial support of 
representative government upon voluntary contribu- 
tions, such a dependence would be futile. It is equal- 
ly futile to depend on voluntary service for the safety 
and maintenance of our independence. 

Service to one's country should be regarded as an 
obligation, not a compulsion. We have obligations 
to our friends, things which we do from a sense of 
duty and usually with pleasure, or at least without 

[ 262 ] 



regret, and not because we are forced to do them. 
Compulsion of some kind is applied only to those who 
will not recognize their obligations and cheerfully 
fulfill them. We should take the same view of the 
sacred obligations to our country. 

There is no higher or nobler duty than the defense 
of our country. We take a pride in fitting ourselves 
to fill honorable positions in life, to render high and 
loyal service. Should we not have at least equal 
pride in preparing ourselves to defend our liberties, 
to keep Old Glory up in the free air where it belongs ? 

We should look upon universal training not as a 
dose of bitter medicine which we are compelled to 
take, but as an honor and distinction. And it will be 
so regarded when every youth of the land receives 
the training, except those who are exempted for their 
deficiencies or for other good reasons. These will be 
the rare exception. The average man will be educated 
to recognize, and trained to fulfill the obligations that 
are inseparable from patriotic citizenship in a free 
country. How noble will be the patriotic spirit of 
our people when every man feels a pride and satis- 
faction in the fact that he is one of the trained de- 
fenders of our liberties and our flag ! 

The following are the words of George Washington, 
and they appear to be as applicable or more applica- 
to present day conditions than to those of AVashing- 
ton's time. He was speaking of military training 
for all citizens. 

[263 ] 



Every intelligent mind would rejoice in the establish- 
ment of an institution, under whose auspices the youth 
and vigor of the constitution would be renewed with each 
successive generation, and which would secure the great 
principles of freedom and happiness against the injuries 
of time and events. 

Patriotism 

We have great confidence and pride in the benefi- 
cence and efficiency of our democratic form of govern- 
ment. We congratulate ourselves on the "opportu- 
nity" afforded to every man of the nation, and the 
better material conditions in which we live, as com- 
pared with those of less fortunate nations. But it 
is worth while to pause and reflect on the nature of 
this "opportunity" which all may have in this land 
of the free. What do we mean by opportunity ? Is the 
opportunity to acquire wealth and material comfort 
what a man most needs to make him most truly and 
fully a man? Does the average American think of 
more than this when he speaks of "opportunity"? 
We must admit, of course, that wealth and material 
comfort do not alone make any life worth living. They 
are, in fact, of little value except insofar as they en- 
able us to acquire and enjoy higher and better things. 
Wealth without virility invariably leads to national 
degeneration, as the history of mankind plainly 
shows. 

The self indulgence and love of ease and luxury 
which made her citizens unwilling to bear the burden 

[ 264 ] 



of military service, in other words, the decay of pa- 
triotism, was the cause of the downfall of ancient 
Eome. 

A government which affords to its citizens only 
wealth and comfort cannot continue to exist, for the 
citizens are unable to defend the country against ag- 
gression. Virility, and not wealth, is the quality es- 
sential to the continued existence of a people. Switz- 
erland is not a wealthy country, yet she continued 
to exist serene through the throes of the European 
War, because her citizens are virile. The best and 
highest expression of virility in all nations has been 
the love of the citizens for their country, their willing- 
ness to give all, if need be, to its service — in a word, 
patriotism. Patriotism in its better sense (real, not 
spurious patriotism) does not develop spontaneously. 
It must be intelligently cultivated by the government. 
The nation must be "morally organized'' to be virile 
and enduring. This moral organization is the func- 
tion of the Federal government, which alone is able 
effectively to secure it. Universal training is in- 
tended to be the instrument for the moral organiza- 
tion of the people. If it is not apparent that the sys- 
tem is producing the desired result it will be modified 
and improved until it does. But no power in the land 
short of that of the Federal government is capable 
of establishing this system and making it effective in 
the accomplishment of its purpose. 

It may be said that the vigor with which America 

[ 265 ] 



entered and prosecuted the late war is sufficient proof 
of our virility as a nation. Certainly we are a virile 
nation. But the German " propaganda, " the antics 
of the " peace at any price" pacifists, the open criti- 
cism of and opposition to the efforts of the govern- 
ment, the necessity for the resort to conscription, 
labor strikes and anarchistic disturbances, ' ' profiteer- 
ing" and other unpatriotic acts which have attended 
our conduct of the war, prove that the nation did not 
rise as one mail in defense of its rights and its honor. 
Thus we are not as patriotic as we might be. We 
are an educated nation, yet we have many illiterates. 
As a nation we are as patriotic as we are educated, 
for patriotism and education go hand in hand, but 
there is room, yes, and demand for improvement in 
both. 

Vast numbers of immigrants who arrive in this 
country have no intention of becoming real citizens. 
Their only object in seeking America is to accumulate 
American gold with which to return and live in com- 
fort in their own land. They feel no obligations of 
citizenship, no devotion to America, its institutions 
or ideals. Their aims are purely selfish, they are 
simply exploiting us for their own aggrandizement. 
Aliens such as these should not be permitted to en- 
joy the freedom, privilege and protection of America 
without assuming the obligations of citizenship. 
Otherwise their presence is a menace to our liberties, 
as we have but too plainly seen in this time of unrest. 

[ 266 ] 






We must either exclude such people or educate them 
to full citizenship. 

During the late war nearly 800,000 aliens of draft 
age (between 21 and 31 years) refused to serve the 
United States, claiming exemption on the ground 
that they were not citizens of America. These were 
not enemy aliens, but citizens of allied or neutral 
countries who had no reason for refusing to serve ex- 
cept selfishness and a lack of appreciation of their 
obligations. Many of them had for years enjoyed 
the benefits of citizenship in America, yet were selfish- 
ly unwilling to render any service in return for these 
benefits. It is the same class of selfish aliens who are 
largely if not chiefly responsible for the industrial 
disturbances which are to-day such a grave menace 
to our prosperity and our freedom. 

We need laws which will compel these aliens to as- 
sume the duties of citizenship, including the ability 
to speak, read and write our language. We should 
compel this foreign element to become citizens in a 
legal sense, or else suffer deportation. But this alone 
is not sufficient. It is not the outward visible form 
alone, but also the inward spiritual grace of citizen- 
ship which we demand. In addition to requiring 
these aliens to become citizens in a legal sense we 
must educate them to a sympathetic understanding 
of what American citizenship means. We must make 
them American to their heart's core, patriots who 
love the country of their adoption. It needs some- 

[ 267] 




L 268 1 



thing more than citizenship papers to make a patri- 
otic, loyal and worthy American citizen. Universal 
training will fill this urgent need. 

But it is not of aliens alone that we would speak. 
We need a higher sense of patriotism in all our citi- 
zens, or better perhaps a livelier realization of what 
patriotism really means. To many of our people 
patriotism is something they have read about in their 
school histories, but have never felt in their hearts. 
To such universal training will bring a more definite 
and a nobler conception. Those who have served and 
saluted the flag, who have stood at "attention" when 
Old Glory rose on its staff each morning, and descend- 
ed therefrom each night, will have a conception of 
patriotism more real and enduring than that derived 
from the school histories, newspapers and 4th of July 
speeches. What we need is less emotional and more 
practical patriotism. 

The resources of a nation, for peace as well as war, 
are not physical alone, but also and chiefly moral. 
To effectively marshal our industrial and physical re- 
sources for the prosecution of -a great war we must 
organize industry and train our people during peace. 
But the foundation of a successful defense, on which 
everything else rests, is the moral organization and 
training of the people. We have the word of the 
greatest of soldiers (Napoleon) that in war the in- 
fluence of moral force is to that of physical force as 
three to one, And it is not fighting men alone who 

[269] 




Old Glory s" guard of honor. Note the splendid physical development 
and the keen, intelligent expressions of these fine young men. The 
set of their lips denotes self reliance and force of character. We 
need millions of boys like these. 

[ 270 1 



need high morale to insure glorious victory, but the 
entire nation which supports them. The army is only 
the cutting edge of a tool which must be urged for- 
ward by the moral and physical forces of the nation 
behind it. Only the will of all the people to conquer 
or die can insure victory. A supine citizenry will 
neither create nor support a gallant and . devoted 
army. 

By the moral organization of the nation we mean 
the sedulous cultivation of the spirit of patriotism, 
pride in and love country, oar country which is so 
eminently worthy of our love and devotion. Every 
citizen (not the soldier alone) must be eager to give 
his all to his country, from a sense of obligation, but 
more especially from love. All is summed up in the 
one word— PATRIOTISM. Not that false and futile 
patriotism whose sole expression is a boastfulness be- 
fore foreigners or a watering of the eyes and a lump 
in the throat in the presence of our flag, but that 
deeper and truer patriotism that lies in the heart, 
that makes us willing, aye and eager to give our 
all to the country we so love and to which we owe all 
that we have and are. 

Cardinal Mercier, the heroic Belgian Priest, who 
performed such glorious service for his country during 
the past war, says : 

Down within us all is something deeper than personal 
kinships, than party feeling, and this is the need and the 
will to devote ourselves to that more general interest which 

[271] 



Rome termed the public thing, res publica. And this pro- 
found will within us is patriotism. 

Our country is not a mere concourse of persons or of 
families inhabitating the same soil, having among them- 
selves relations more or less intimate of business, of neigh- 
borhood, of a community of memories happy or unhappy. 

Not so; it is an association of living souls subject to a 
social organization, to be defended and safeguarded at 
all costs, even the cost of blood, under the leadership of 
those presiding over its fortunes. And it is because of 
this general spirit that the people of a country live a com- 
mon life in the present, through the past, through the 
aspirations, the hopes, the confidence in a life to come, 
which they share together. 

This is the spirit that has made and preserved us 
a nation. This is the spirit that we wish by univer- 
sal education to implant in the heart of every native 
born American citizen and of every alien who seeks 
asylum on our shores. There is no room in America 
except for patriotic American citizens. 



[ 272 ] 



APPENDIX 



The following is a synopsis of the principal provisions 
with reference to universal training and service in time of 
war in the Bill, S. 3888, introduced in the U. S. Senate in 
January, 1920, by Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., 
Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. 

Sec. 51. Military Training. — All male citizens of the United 
States (excluding Alaska and insular possessions) and all who have 
declared an intention to become citizens, other than persons excepted 
by this act, shall, upon attaining the age of eighteen years, or within 
three years thereafter, be subject to military or naval training, and 
shall be inducted into the Army or Navy of the U. S. for this purpose 
alone and shall be subject to training therein for a period of four 
months and for such further time as may be reasonably necessary for 
enrollment, mobilization and demobilization. The training of any such 
person may, with his consent, be continued for an additional period 
not exceeding two months. All shall have the privilege of electing, 
whether training shall begin at eighteen or shall be deferred for not 
more than three years and of expressing whether they desire to train 
in the Army or Navy, and, so far as practicable, they shall be trained in 
accordance with such expressed desire. Military training as herein 
provided for shall become effective beginning Jan. 1, 1921. All liable 
for training who do not begin within three years of the age of eighteen 
because exempt from training or for any other reason shall begin such 
training as soon thereafter as may be, but not after attaining the age 
of twenty-six. Any alien resident in the U. S. for not less than one 
year and qualified to become a citizen except by length of residence 
and prior filing of a declaration of intention, and who, if a citizen, 
would be liable for training, may, with his consent, be inducted into 
service, and upon completion he shall receive a certificate thereof and 
have the privilege of electing forthwith to become a citizen within six 
months. Any alien male resident who shall claim and secure exemption 
from military training, upon the ground of alienage; except as ex- 
pressly provided by treaty, shall not be admitted to citizenship there- 
after but shall be forever barred. 

Sec. 52. Classes of Training. — The military training and any 
preparatory education therefor shall be prescribed by regulation, and 
shall include general educational training and vocational training in 
appropriate trades necessary in war and useful in peace, scientific 
agriculture, physical training, instruction in hygiene, instruction in 



American history, principles and forms of government, and such other 
instruction and training as is adapted to qualification for duties 
as citizen soldiers. The training to be given in different areas of 
the country shall be adapted to the climate, agricultural, industrial, 
educational and other conditions. Upon induction for training all 
recruits shall be subjected to a physical and psychological examin- 
ation, including such mental and other tests as necessary to determine 
whether subsequent service shall be with combat or special troop units. 
Subject to revision and approval by the Secretary of War, regulations 
governing training shall be prepared by a committee of that division 
of the General Staff charged with direction and supervision of military 
training; this committee shall be composed of three or more officers 
and at least an equal number of other persons, including veteran 
officers, eligible for appointment as reserve officers, physicians and 
civilians specially qualified. 

Sec. 53. Preparatory Educational Training. — Persons liable 
to training not sufficiently instructed in the English language to be 
able to profit by such training may be required to receive, prior to the 
training period, the preparatory education necessary to fit them there- 
for, and they may be inducted into the service or not for this purpose. 
The preparatory educational period shall not exceed two months. 

Sec. 54. Pay and Allowance or Persons Undergoing Train- 
ing. — During the training period and, if inducted into the service, dur- 
ing preparatory educational period, each man shall receive pay at 
the rate of $5 a month, besides transportation, clothing, laundry, 
shelter, subsistence, and all necessary medical and dental attendance. 

Sec. 55. Exceptions prom Liability to Training. — The follow- 
ing shall be excepted: (a) Persons exempted by treaty; (b) citizens 
or subjects of any country with which the U, S. is at war or of any 
ally of such country; (c) persons in a status with respect to persons 
dependent upon them which renders their exception advisable, except 
when suitable provision is made by law for such dependents; (d) 
persons in the military or naval service of the U. S. or who have 
served therein for a period of four months, including only such kinds 
of prior service as prescribed by regulation; (e) students preparing 
for the ministry in recognized theological schools; (f) persons mentally, 
morally, or physically incapable of profiting by the usual training, for 
whom appropriate measures may be taken. 

Sec. 56. Assignment op Reservists in National Guard and 
in Organized Reserves. — Each reservist who has completed the pre- 
scribed training shall be assigned to an organization of the National 
Guard or the organized reserves established for the locality in which 
he lives, and shall serve therein for five years, when he shall be trans 



ferred to the unorganized reserves; reservists assigned to the National 
Guard shall serve therein for a period of three years. Any reservist 
may, upon change of residence, be transferred to an appropriate 
organization of the Guard, or organized reserves for the locality of his 
new residence. So far as the needs of the service will permit, each 
reservist shall be assigned, or transferred, to an arm of the service 
which he may elect or for which he is found best qualified; no reservist 
shall be assigned or transferred to an organization of the National 
Guard without his consent; the number of reservists who have com- 
pleted training that may be assigned to the National Guard shall not 
exceed in any year one-third of the maximum strength of the Guard. 

While assigned to organized reserves, reservists shall be subject to 
mobilization and additional training for two annual periods of not 
to exceed two weeks each during their membership therein; any 
desiring to qualify as officers or non-commissioned officers, may with 
their consent, receive additional training, and be continued in the 
organized reserves for a period of ten years. 

Sec. 57. Grades, Ratings, and Rates or Pay op Reservists. — 
The grades and ratings to which reservists assigned to or enlisted in 
National Guard, or the organized reserves, may be appointed, the num- 
bers in each grade, and rates of pay, when in the active service of the 
U. S., shall be the same as grades, ratings and rates of pay provided 
for enlisted men of this permanent personnel. 

Sec. 59. Liability of Reservists and of Organized Reserves 
for Service. — Reservists assigned to organized reserves, in addition 
to being subject to call for training may at any time, with their own 
consent, be called into active service to act as instructors, or to per- 
form any other appropriate duty for which qualified. All reservists 
may be required to make an annual report by mail or otherwise. The 
organized reserves shall be liable to call for military service by the 
President, only when Congress shall declare that a national emergency 
exists; but this shall not prevent voluntary assembly of the units of the 
organized reserves nor annual mobilization or training. 

Sec. 63. Training of Recruits in National. Guard. — Any per- 
son liable to military training who is able to speak, read and write 
English intelligently may elect to receive such training in the National 
Guard. In any state not more than 200 such persons for each Senator 
and Representative, and a number to be determined by the President 
for each territory and District of Columbia, shall be accepted in any 
one year; they shall enlist for five years; the first three years shall be 
substantially equivalent to the training prescribed for recruits in the 
training forces. If they shall fail to carry out their obligation in receiv- 
ing prescribed training honestly and faithfully, they shall, upon recom- 



mendation of immediate commanding officer, approved by corps com- 
mander, be transferred to the training forces and required to receive 
prescribed training therein for four months, at expiration of which 
they shall be transferred to the National Guard and serve therein for 
three years. Training in the National Guard shall be conducted by 
officers and enlisted men of the training forces hereinbefore provided 
for and assigned for this purpose; subject to the supervision of the 
corps commander of the area. Such training shall be authorized only 
for those localities where adequate facilities exist and are made avail- 
able by state or other authorities concerned. Persons who elect to re- 
ceive equivalent training in National Guard shall while receiving such 
training receive the pay and allowances prescribed for privates, to- 
gether with medical and dental attendance. 

Sec. 71. Liability for Military Service in Time of "War. — 
Whenever Congress shall declare and the President shall proclaim that a 
national emergency exists — 

(a) The National Guard, organized reserves and unorganized reserves 
shall be subject to call for immediate active military service during the 
emergency. 

(b) All other male citizens of the U. S. (except officers and enlisted 
men of the permanent personnel of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps) 
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, both inclusive, and all other 
male persons between such ages residing in U. S. (including Alaska 
and insular possessions), who have within seven years prior to the call 
declared an intention to become citizens, except persons excepted in 
Sec. 55, shall be subject to call for immediate military or naval service. 
The order in which they shall be inducted into such service shall be 
determined by their classification as provided in Sec. 72. 

Sec. 72. Classification of Persons Liable for Service. — 
In determining the order as above, classification shall be provided for 
as follows: So as to constitute such special classes as may be pre- 
scribed; so as to place in a deferred class those needed in occupations 
of importance during the emergency, so long as they regularly and in 
good faith continue in such occupations; also those upon whose 
families and dependents the hardships would be greatest by reason 
of their induction; so as to provide the Military and Naval Establish- 
ments with persons having special qualifications; so as to except from 
service, upon claim for exception, a regularly ordained minister of 
religion, member of a well-recognized religious sect in existence for 
at least five years whose principles forbid participation in war, etc., but 
they shall not be excepted from service in any non-combatant capacity; 
also Federal, State, District of Columbia, county, or municipal officers 



or employees, whose functions render their exception advisable, including 
police force and reserves. No exception or deferred classification 
shall continue when a cause therefor no longer exists. 

Sec. 73. Registration. — Whenever Congress shall declare that a 
national emergency exists, the President is authorized to require regis- 
tration of all or any class of male citizens or residents ; exceptions : 
Officers and enlisted men in the permanent personnel of the Army, 
Navy and Marine Corps and reserve officers, enlisted men and re- 
servists in National Guard, and organized reserves and recruits un- 
dergoing training; diplomatic representatives, etc., of foreign countries. 

Sec. 74. Registration of Persons Liable for Military Train- 
ing. — -To carry out the provisions of this act all male citizens, and all 
male residents of the U. S. (except Alaska and insular possessions), 
after attaining the age of seventeen years, shall be required to register 
with local or other board, on such days as prescribed by the President, 
to the end that they may be called for training; any who may require 
preparatory education under Sec. 53 may be required to receive it at 
any time after registration; any subject to military training, physically 
qualified therefor, may, with their consent and that of parents and 
guardians, be inducted for training at any time after registration and 
before attaining the age of eighteen. 

A number of other bills providing for universal training 
are also under consideration. 



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